Python scares SBS bus driver, forces evacuation
A half metre-long python surfaced on an SBS bus on Wednesday evening, lingering at the front and scaring its driver into evacuating his passengers.
The bus on service 12 was headed toward Pasir Ris interchange when the snake appeared near the coin deposit box, reported Lianhe Wanbao.
Witnesses told the paper that the bus driver initially seemed quite calm, and continued driving for a while. The reptile slithered closer to him, however, and unnerved the driver enough to eventually cry out, "I don't dare to drive!"
University undergraduate Vanessa Tan, 22, who observed the incident, said the driver then called the SBS headquarters on the phone in a panic.
"He sounded stressed and spoke loudly. He must have been very frightened," she said.
"The passengers who didn't know what was going on even thought he was quarrelling with someone on the phone," she added.
By this time, the bus was along Kallang Road when the driver reportedly stopped it in the middle of the road, telling the passengers on board to alight immediately.
At that point, it was raining, and some of the passengers who were not aware of what was happening were unhappy at being asked to alight, said Tan.
Police received a call for help at 8pm, and found the python near the driver's seat, beside the coin box, where it was captured alive and taken away.
The passengers later went to a nearby bus stop to wait for another bus.
No one was injured from the incident, but an SBS spokesperson told The New Paper that it was a very rare one, and that SBS was in the process of downloading data from their CCTVs to determine the source of the snake, as well as how and at what point it appeared on the bus.
A police spokesperson told Yahoo! Singapore that the snake has been sent to the Singapore Zoo.
