While recently driving his bus route in North Kamloops, Darren Kiesman went out of his way to help a senior struggling with her walker on snow-covered sidewalks.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/B.C. Transit

While recently driving his bus route in North Kamloops, Darren Kiesman went out of his way to help a senior struggling with her walker on snow-covered sidewalks.

Kiesman was recognized on social media by a local resident, and later by his First Transit employer, for going out of his way to make sure the senior got home safely, according to a B.C. Transit news release.

“I had just pulled out of the stop near Tim Hortons in North Kamloops when I saw an older lady struggling to get from the roadway onto the sidewalk in heavy slush and snow,” Kiesman said in the release. “The whole sidewalk looked pretty bad and I knew I had the vehicle to help her, so I just pulled up next to her and dropped the bus down so she could get on.”

She turned out to have ridden Kiesman's route along Tranquille Road before and was trying to reach her retirement home that was just a block away.

READ MORE: Snowfall warnings issued through Friday for Southern Interior

“When I told her I wanted to give her a ride, she was really shocked and quite grateful. We chatted a bit on the short trip, and when she got off, she told me I was her angel for the day, which was nice," Kiesman said.

Snow has blanketed much of the southern Interior this winter, with more coming this week.

A December Arctic front also brought extreme colds with it, creating hazards for both drivers and pedestrians alike.

Kiesman's efforts were noticed by Kamloops resident Derek Molter, who took to social media to explain what he'd witnessed, and that he'd gone out of his way to contact First Transit about Kiesman's efforts.

“This was not a normal bus stop, and he didn’t have to help her. I thought it was just too cool,” Molter said. “With everything that’s going on these days, what this driver did for a random resident needed to be told.”

READ MORE: When people had nowhere to go in the Kamloops cold, The Loop stepped up

First Transit assistant general manager, Stacey Ceron, said she was emotional after hearing about Kiesman's efforts to ensure one Kamloops senior could make it home safely amid the winter conditions.

“When Derek told me about this situation it actually got me a little teary-eyed,” Ceron said in the release. “I couldn’t be more proud of what Darren did for that person, who could have been really impacted by a bad fall in those conditions.”

Kamloops continues to see snowfall and cold conditions into the new year, with a recent snowfall on Wednesday night layering the city.

Although extreme cold temperatures have subsided, Environment Canada forecasts a chance of flurries both tomorrow and Saturday, with temperatures rising above 0 Celsius on Monday.

READ MORE: Smaller communities leading the explosion of COVID cases in Interior Health

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