Photo by JEFFREY HASTINGS A Nashua woman is credited with stopping this Nashua Transit bus Monday morning, after the driver suffered a fatal medical emergency behind the wheel. None of the passengers were injured.

NASHUA – When the Nashua Transit bus she was riding Monday completed a turn on Burke Street and began to drift to the right, it caught Lizette Markham’s attention.

When the big, blue bus sideswiped a parked car and headed toward a fire hydrant with no signs of slowing down, it was obvious to Markham and the seven other passengers: something was drastically wrong.

“I jumped out of my seat, went up and put my foot on the brake,” Markham said. “I was able to get (the bus) to stop, but I didn’t know how to turn it off.”

That’s when she realized the driver, a man whose name hasn’t been released, was unconscious and unresponsive, the victim of an apparent medical emergency that turned out to be fatal.

“We’re saddened by the loss of our driver, but are thankful nobody else was injured as a result of this incident,” city Transportation Manager Camille Pattison said later Monday.

Pattison said the incident occurred at 11:15 a.m., when “one of our drivers experienced a fatal medical emergency … causing the bus to make contact with a parked car and a fire hydrant.”

She said police interviewed the passengers and other witnesses, and they continue to investigate.

The bus came to rest partially on a sidewalk, with the sheared-off hydrant visible between the front wheel and the boarding steps. The bus appeared to have very slight damage to the front.

Markham, a Nashua resident, said she yelled to her fellow passengers to call 911 after stopping the bus and noticing the driver had “dropped backward” in his seat.

“It was a little crazy … I just wanted to do the right thing — to help us all,” Markham said. “I’m glad I’m safe. I’m glad the others are safe.”

When police arrived, she said, they asked her why she didn’t turn off the engine. “I told them, I didn’t know how,” she said, adding that the officers “told me I did a good job and they’d take it from here.”

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com, or @Telegraph_DeanS.