A bus driver and public transport employee “obsessed” with their jobs were nearly crushed to death yesterday when they stood in front of an empty bus and attempted to stop it from crashing into a concrete barrier after it started moving on its own.

The driver, David Buttigieg, was pinned between the vehicle and the toppled concrete construction barrier and was rushed to Mater Dei Hospital after paramedics found he had sustained grievous injuries.

Eyewitnesses, who were sipping their morning coffee near the Valletta terminal, told Times of Malta Mr Buttigieg and Johan Spiteri, a bus depot manager, had scrambled when they saw the bus rolling forward.

“I was taking a five-minute break between shifts to smoke a cigarette and the next thing I know there’s an empty bus moving on its own, picking up speed. Some people tried to stop it but how can you stop a vehicle that size? It’s crazy,” Paul Vella, another driver, said.

The would-be human handbrake was no match against the moving bus and a Malta Public Transport employee was quick on her feet assessing the danger.

Surrounded by co-workers, she sat in tears as she recounted how she pulled Mr Spiteri to safety but Mr Buttigieg refused to abandon his beloved bus.

Gasping for air, the employee said she had done so because she feared the driver would have been crushed to death under the weight of the large bus.

“I tried to pull him out too but he wouldn’t budge. He just told me to leave him,” she said, before being taken to the Floriana Health Centre to be treated for shock.

It is not clear why the bus started moving forward and Malta Public Transport said the incident was being investigated.

Drivers gathered around the bus could not explain what happened but said they had experienced a similar problem in the past. Luckily, their bus was on a flat stretch of road and so did not move very far.

Two empty cars were also crushed between the bus and the concrete structure.