Israeli bus driver: 'The first second is crucial'

Israeli bus driver Micky Harel has survived four Palestinian attacks.

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CNN) -- The bus driver who survived the most recent Palestinian suicide attack in Israel -- as well as three previous attacks -- said Thursday the first thing a person thinks of in that situation is to save himself, and then try to help others.

Micky Harel was driving a bus near Megiddo junction, Israel on Wednesday when a suicide bomber driving a car laden with explosives pulled alongside the bus and detonated his charge. Seventeen Israelis, 13 of them soldiers, were killed.

Harel talked from his hospital bed Thursday with CNN Jerusalem Producer Mike Schwartz.

SCHWARZ: How are you feeling this morning?

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HAREL: Much better. After a shower and cleaning the foot, the pain has gone down.

SCHWARZ: Where is it hurting?

HAREL: I was injured in the hand, then down my leg. This is the most serious because I got caught behind the wheel when the bus overturned. The whole leg is seriously wounded but at least there are no broken bones.

SCHWARZ: How did you get through this?

HAREL: During the time of the attack, I started going slower because at that point there is usually a police roadblock where we got checked. When we got next to the jail, I felt a huge explosion. I looked in the mirror and saw the back part of the bus going up in the air. In the meantime I looked forward and couldn't see the road because all the glass shattered.

The bus turned on its side. I tried to straighten it, I didn't have control. I pushed the brakes and there was no reaction. The bus fell on its side and was being pulled on its side. I felt I'm being pulled by the bus for 50 meters and I said to myself, "Let this finish, let this be over." The bus hit the roadside and fell back on its wheels.

The whole time I heard shouts and commotion in the bus. I tried to get out of the front door and saw that it wouldn't open. So I jumped out of the window. At the same time that I jumped, I saw soldiers thrown out of the left side of the bus. Some of them were badly wounded. All were hurt in the hands and feet.

The bus started to burn. The fire was intense. I started to get soldiers out of the window sides. I felt the heat and could not get over it. Those who fell, I succeeded in pulling them out onto the ground. I pulled them to the side separation fence.

SCHWARZ: This is not the first time you were in this situation.

HAREL: The first time was eight months ago when I was on the Kiryat Shmona-Tel Aviv line. I got to Afula and took a break for 15 minutes. I went to the kiosk to get a drink and then all of a sudden I heard shooting above my head. Bullets. I heard a soldier is shooting. Everybody was running because they never knew what was happening.

The man shooting shot up my bus. There was blood and three people were killed on my bus.

The second time I was behind a bus and after 50 meters I looked in front and saw the bus explode. I knew there was an attack. In these cases you know immediately it is an attack.

I stopped. It was shocking until they evacuated them. And then there were more people dead.

The third time was a month ago. We got to an intersection. I stopped at the traffic light. I stopped traveling and right away there was a suicide bomber who blew himself up. The police had gone to check him. The soldiers, they had seen a man flying through the air and I knew it was a suicide bomber.

[Wednesday] was the fourth time.

SCHWARZ: What is it like to be in a bus that explodes?

HAREL: The first second is crucial. You think just to get yourself out alive, even wounded but alive. Jump out the bus and save yourself. Everybody is jumping out of the bus and wants to remain whole. There are those who don't succeed.

And after the first minute, it's to help. Not to run away. Try to get those out who need help.

SCHWARZ: And during the nights, do you dream about it?

HAREL: No, nothing. It doesn't worry me.