This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Friends Kathy Fellows and Rachel Staheli hopped on a Utah Transit Authority bus together Friday, just like most mornings, and headed north for work at the University of Utah.
But as the bus exited Interstate 215 and drove downhill on Foothill Boulevard, things got exciting. The engine overheated and was about to automatically shut itself down, so the driver pulled to the side of the road and got out. Suddenly the doors closed, which Fellows said seemed unusual.
"We looked at each other and went, 'This isn't good,' " Fellows said. "And then the bus started rolling."
The women took action. As the bus accelerated downhill, Staheli jumped into the driver's seat and Fellows tried to open the door to let in the driver, who was running alongside, yelling, "Put on the brake! Put on the brake!"
Staheli tried once, but the bus kept moving. She tried again, this time jamming her foot into the pedal. The bus finally lurched to a stop. Fellows said she toppled over, and so did several other passengers who were coming forward to help. "Everyone went flying forward," she said.
UTA is investigating what may have caused the incident, spokesman Remi Barron said Wednesday. He said a summary report detailing the incident was expected to be released soon. Officials were interviewing the driver and passengers, and they would conduct a "thorough mechanical check" on the bus, he said.
"It didn't go very far, from what I understand," Barron said of the bus. "But obviously we can't have a bus moving without an operator in seat, so we need to figure out why that occurred."
Barron said it was "not unheard of" for UTA buses to overheat. When the bus engine reaches a certain temperature, it eventually shuts down, he said, giving the driver time to move to the side of the road. The operator then must exit the bus to restart the battery, he said, to allow the bus to restart after it cools. Barron said the driver followed procedure.
"But somehow, the bus was allowed to roll," he said.
A UTA supervisor went to the scene, Barron said, and collected information from the passengers. Nobody was injured seriously, though Fellows said she strained muscles in her arm and back, and got checked out at an urgent care clinic. The two women eventually continued on — in the same bus — to their offices at the U.
Fellows hopes UTA covers medical bills or damaged property — one man shattered his glasses when he fell forward, she said.
"Crazy morning," Fellows later wrote on Facebook. "Grateful for Rachel and stopping the bus, it could have been much worse."
Twitter: @lramseth