By Graham Davis

Bus hero CPOMED Derek Broderick clasps his award alongside wife Kerrie, daughter Tamieka and HMAS Kanimbla’s CO CMDR Stephen Woodall. Photo: ABPH Helen Frank

A quick thinking Navy medic has brought a bus travelling at 100kph, its driver unconscious at the wheel and with 54 passengers on board, safely to a halt before it crashed into oncoming traffic near Canberra.

“I grabbed the wheel, pushed the driver out of the way while he vomited all over me, found the biggest pedal I could see and put my foot on it,” CPOMED Derek Broderick said.

CPOMED Broderick, 33, is a senior medic on HMAS Kanimbla.

His quick actions potentially saved the lives of the driver and his passengers, and have now been formally acknowledged.

On July 13, the general manager of Murrays Coaches, Kate Roberts, presented CPOMED Broderick with a Certificate of Appreciation during an afternoon tea at The Finger Wharf, Woolloomooloo, in Sydney.
He had already been granted free travel for life with the company.

Derek’s wife Kerrie and their daughter Tamieka, 7, were present at the afternoon tea.
The East Timor veteran (he served on HMAS Anzac when she was the initial guardship off Dili) has been in the RAN for 17 years and is the principal medic on Kanimbla, charged with the provision of primary medical care for 220 sailors and soldiers who make up the ship’s company.

His principal residence is Queanbeyan and, when possible, he goes home each weekend.

“I got on the regular 6pm coach in Canberra on Sunday, May 2,” he told Navy News.

Murrays said there was a driver and 54 passengers on the vehicle.

“Coming along the Federal Highway at Lake George the coach was doing 100 kph in the kerbside lane

“It moved from that lane to the outside lane. I thought for a second the driver was just changing lanes.

“The bus’s wheels then went on to the ‘rough’ of the median strip.

“I noticed the driver had his head down. He was unconscious. His hands were limp on the steering wheel.

“I was sitting across the aisle in the front seat. I got up quickly as the coach went into a three-metre deep channel running through the median strip.

“It started to mow down small trees. I could hear people screaming and yelling behind me.

“I grabbed the steering wheel just as the driver began to vomit all over me.”

CPOMED Broderick said the coach continued across the median strip and then out on to the traffic lanes occupied by vehicles heading to Canberra.

“Using my body weight I forced the driver across his seat and towards his window.

“The bus was out into the other lanes, cars were trying to avoid it.

“I found the biggest pedal I could see and put my foot on it.”

His actions slowed the vehicle allowing him to guide it back across the south-bound lanes and on to the median strip and safety.

“It was quite a 200 metre ride,” he explained later.

CPOMED Broderick’s work did not end there.

As well as turning off the engine he switched on the hazard lights.

He went to the driver to make sure his airway was not obstructed with debris.

CPOMED Broderick saw the driver regain consciousness.

He went to a passenger where he had been originally sitting and calmed her panic.

He also announced to the shocked, but relieved, passengers who he was, and that he suspected the driver had suffered a severe case of food poisoning which had caused him to lose consciousness.

CPOMED Broderick arranged for other passengers to use their mobile phones to call the emergency services while he made contact with Murrays to alert them of the incident and call for a replacement driver and coach.

When ambulance officers arrived he handed his “patient” over to them providing a background and potential diagnosis.

The driver was transported to Canberra’s Calvary Hospital where he was treated for food poisoning.

He has fully recovered.

CPOMED Broderick and the bulk of the other passengers waited for a replacement coach and continued on to Sydney.

At the scene many commended CPOMED Broderick for his actions.

“There is no doubt that Mr Broderick’s actions averted what could have been a serious bus accident,” Mr Barry Blewitt, Murrays ACT manager said.

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