HONOLULU -- A passenger riding a city bus when police arrested the driver on DUI charges said the man appeared out of balance and weaved back and forth on the roade.

"He hit something and it was like a loud bang. 'Bang.' And everybody was like shaken up, and what's when the passenger yelled out hey bus driver pay attention," passenger Knighten Burge said.

Burge said that was when he began to fear for his life. Burge was one of seven passengers on board the city bus driven by Searle Pestana, 61, last Thursday night just before Pestana was arrested for drunk driving in Waimanalo.

"As we were coming into Waimanalo, when you come around the bend in Waimanalo, by the golf course, he was running over the bumble bumps on the left side of the lane all the way down," Burge said.

Burge said he suspected the driver was impaired somehow just by his actions.

"When he pulled his bus over, he came out, he was like floating trying to balance, to get out of his seat to see what damage he made of whatever he had hit," Burge said.

A passenger called 911 to report the bus driver was weaving and speeding and may have hit something on the Pali Highway.

When officers pulled over the veteran bus driver on Kamehameha Highway, they said his speech was slurred and smelled strongly of alcohol. They found an open bottle of rum under the driver's seat.

There was also minor damage to the bus's bumper and side mirror.

Pestana said he was taking high blood pressure medication, which made him dizzy. He failed a sobriety test and blew a 0.182 on a blood alcohol breath test, according to police documents.

Burge said he is saddened about Pestana, a driver he would see almost daily.

"(He's a) very good driver, real friendly humble good guy," Burge said.