Irish Independent Thurs May 06, 2004 Bus driver saw bomber park explosive-filled car before blast  Caroline Crawford  A WITNESS saw a man park a car laden with explosives on a Dublin Street  and walk quickly away and later identified someone, who was "very like"  the bomber, as part of the Garda investigation.  He told the inquest into the deaths of 34 people in the Dublin and  Monaghan bombings in 1974 that he had been a bus driver at the time and  had brought a group of children and nuns to Dublin for a trip.  The witness was given permission to remain anonymous because of security  fears.  He was on South Leinster Street waiting for a parking space at around  5.30pm on the day of the bombings when he noticed a Northern-registered  Austin 1800 drive slowly up and park.  The bus driver watched as a man sat in the vehicle and worked at  something in the front. He then left the car without locking it and  walked down the street, making eye contact with the bus driver as he did  so.  Minutes later the explosion occurred and the witness was thrown to the  back of his bus, then sucked forward again and hurled through the front  window.  The witness went to the aid of a woman he described as looking like "a  ball of fire".  "I got out of the vehicle, dived into the flames and beat the flames off  her," he said.  He described the driver of the Austin as being 24-years old and looking  like "an office man". He was clean shaven with a thin face and had black  hair. "He had a respectable appearance," said the witness.  The bus driver watched as the man, having left his car, walked down  Nassau Street. He was clear of the blast when it went off.  The witness immediately told gardai what he had seen and assisted in the  production of a photofit.  The inquiry heard that the witness had been brought to a house and asked  if he could identify the man and was also brought to Dublin airport about  a week after the bombing in the hope of identifying the man coming off a  flight.  "A particular person I looked at was very like the man but I couldn't put  it any higher than that," he said.  The court also heard from other witnesses who had seen the Austin 1800  before the blasts. Gerard O'Reilly gave evidence of seeing the car at 1pm  in Drumcondra. At that time there were three men in the car.  Despite having a good view of the men in the car, Mr O'Reilly was never  asked to make a photofit.