DENVER (KDVR) — No passengers were reported hurt after an RTD bus ran off the road and crashed on Monday.

According to RTD, it happened on an AB1 bus destined for Boulder moments after leaving Denver International Airport. RTD said the driver suffered some sort of operator emergency, leaving the road and striking a light pole.

“All of a sudden, there was a big bam, and it felt like someone had just hit us,” Dean Vlachos said. “Then we realized we were off the road because we could feel the dirt underneath us, and also the bus was starting to wobble around a little bit.”

Vlachos and his wife Janice said they held on for dear life as passengers near the front of the bus tried to help the driver, who was unconscious. 

“They were trying to get in there, but because of the COVID shield they couldn’t get in there to grab the wheel, or apply the brake, or just to see he was OK.” he said. “At that point, people were screaming inside. We didn’t know what was going on.”

Vlachos said multiple tires blew out, eventually causing the bus to stop near the top of a steep embankment. 

“It was extremely scary because we didn’t know how this was going to stop,” he said. “And we waited for the tip that never came, and at that point the bus finally did slow.”

RTD said 70 people were on the bus at the time, many of them standing, according to Vlachos. 

RTD said the driver was taken to the hospital for treatment and observation. They would not comment on what sort of operator emergency might have occurred.

Vlachos said the driver, who he estimates was in his late 20s, was dazed but conscious as they departed the bus.

“He was just hands in his face, and he looked in shock, more than anything else,” Vlachos said. 

Two extra buses were sent to pick up passengers and continue the route. Vlachos said it would have been catastrophic if the bus had tipped. 

“It was basically luck,” he said. “It was great fortune and a blessing that we did not tip that bus, because there was nobody at the control at that point.”