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Crowd mourns hero bus driver

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Senior government officials jointed thousands of ordinary citizens at a funeral service yesterday for a bus driver who saved 24 passengers in the last moments of his life.

People bid farewell to Wu Bin, a bus driver who ignored fatal injuries caused by flying metal debris to make sure that 24 passengers he was transporting were safe. A memorial service was held for him at Hangzhou Funeral Home in Zhejiang province on Tuesday. [ Photo / China Daily ]

Wu Bin, 48, from Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, was hit by a piece of flying metal on May 29 as he was driving on a highway near Wuxi in Jiangsu Province. He was severely injured and died in hospital three days later.

Metal from a broken brake drum on a vehicle driving on the opposite lane catapulted toward his bus, shattering the windshield and hitting him in the chest. Despite being in great pain, Wu managed to pull the bus to a stop, applied the parking brake, turned on the hazard lights and made sure all the passengers were safe before he collapsed.

He saved 24 lives, and that is his greatest contribution in his ordinary life, Wu Bingxin, his elder sister, said in her memorial speech.

Wu's heroic actions deeply moved the public and thousands of people, most of whom were unacquainted with him, came to mourn, many of them in tears.

Countless wreaths, from Wu's family and friends, local companies and the city government, local residents and migrant workers, and even from celebrities, covered the Hangzhou Funeral House's paths and filled the hall before the service began at 8am.

Zhang Jianting, vice mayor of Hangzhou, hosted the memorial gathering. Feng Zhenglin, vice minister of transportation, Wang Jianman, deputy governor of Zhejiang Province, and Hangzhou Mayor Shao Zhanwei were among officials who attended the funeral.

Mourners lined up to pay tribute, bowing before Wu's body, laying flowers and telling him: "You are the greatest driver" and "You are always alive in our heart."

"I always took his bus, shuttling between Wuxi and Hangzhou," said Wu Yao who had also been his neighbor for nearly 30 years. "I remember he was a good neighbor who never quarreled with anyone, and a good driver," he told Shanghai Daily.

The Zhejiang provincial government conferred the honorary title of "revolutionary martyr" to commemorate Wu's selflessness and the Ministry of Transport honored Wu as a model worker.

"His long-term moral cultivation contributes to his heroic acts," said Zhao Hongzhu, Party chief of Zhejiang Province.

"I believed that the series of actions after the accident was his instinct, which is a combination of his good physical function and strong willpower," Feng Li, a friend of Wu for more than 20 years, told Shanghai Daily.

An initial investigation has found that metal fatigue caused the piece of metal, weighing 3.5 kilograms, to break off and smash through the windshield of Wu's bus, Wuxi police said on Monday.

Police have identified nine vehicles that passed by the area at the time and are trying to pin down the suspect.

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