Fiji Sun Person Of The Year 8: Driver’s Heroic Act Not Forgotten By Passengers

Rupeni’s surname, Siganisucu, means Christmas.

The bus driver’s quick thinking and evasive action last month allowed many of his passengers to celebrate Christmas in four days.

Whether it had to do with his name is pure conjecture.

What is clear was that if he had not driven the bus into the bush it would have collided with an oncoming truck. That would have been catastrophic.

The passengers called him a “hero” for saving them. We think so too. He suffered leg injuries but many of the passengers were safe.

The 47-year-old from Nabau, Nadroga, was driving the Coastline Transport Limited bus when the accident happened on the Queens Road at Sovi Bay, on the Coral Coast.

Mr Siganisucu’s action that morning saved his 60 passengers from a Sunday school group from Navosa, who were on an excursion trip to Suva.

While lying on his hospital bed at the Lautoka Hospital his left leg showed the scars and injuries he suffered from the near-death ordeal.

“I was at the bend; I saw the truck coming straight at us. He came onto our lane and was heading straight at us. I can say he was in good speed,” he said.

“I managed to save the front of the bus, but he hit the back. When I swung the bus, I had to make it go straight otherwise the bus would have tumbled to the side, which endangered the lives of my passengers.”

The bus that Rupeni Siganisucu drove. Photo: Salote Qalubau

“As a result no one died,” he said.

Edited by Nemani Delaibatiki 

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