A BEST bus driver collapsed at the wheel while driving through a busy Dadar junction on Wednesday, but managed to avert a major accident by steering the bus towards rows of parked vehicles before he passed out.The driver, Vithal Jambhale, 49, was plying route No 85 (Kurla East-Hutatma Chowk) when he collapsed at the wheel just ahead of a signal near the Shiv Sena Bhavan around 11.45 am.The bus had around 85 passengers on board, and the area was teeming with pedestrians, motorists and twowheeler riders.Fortunately, Jambhale had swerved the vehicle to left towards the footpath, where rows of cars and twowheelers had been parked, and the bus came to a halt after ramming into one of the stationary cars.The conductor, Kishore Dadu, turned off the ignition and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation to Jambhale, fearing he had suffered a heart attack.Jambhale, a resident of Navi Mumbai, was found to be suffering from low blood sugar level by the doctors at Shushrusha Hospital in Dadar, where he was rushed by Dadu in a traffic police vehicle. He was discharged around 2pm.“The driver and the conductor both showed great courage,” said Ramesh Prabhu, 42, one of the passengers, “The driver managed to steer the bus away from traffic, following which the conductor grabbed the wheel and turned the vehicle off.”The BEST officials said Jambhale had reported to work at 7 am Wednesday, after a 16-day sick leave during which he underwent a surgery to rid infection in the ear.After an early morning trip, he was assigned the curtailed route to Hutatma Chowk.“We have been told it was not a cardiac problem. Jambhale had just returned from sick leave. All our drivers and conductors have been given a basic training in handling medical emergencies,” a BEST spokesperson said.As soon as he regained consciousness Jambhale asked his colleagues to check whether there were casualties. “I’m thankful to God that no-one was injured, but I’m feeling terrible for the person whose car got damaged,” he said.He’s spent more than 20 years working for BEST, and said he didn’t have a single instance of a serious accident. “My head started to spin and the vision blurred. I realised I was in big trouble and took my foot off the accelerator. I wanted to prevent casualties at any cost,” the Kopar Khairanebased driver said.