Bus driver dies in head-on crash with a coach

Residents rushed to the scene of the accident in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, yesterday afternoon.

Police said the accident happened on North View, in the Newfield area of the town, just after 4pm, between a single-deck bus and a coach.

The coach had only the driver on board and the bus was carrying only a few passengers.

The bus was travelling downhill while the coach was travelling in the opposite direction.

The driver of the coach, who had to be cut free from the wreckage, was taken to Newcastle General Hospital by air ambulance with critical head injuries, chest injuries and lower leg trauma.

The other injured, who were all passengers on the bus, were two women, aged 73 and 50, and a 70-year-old man.

One had a fractured hip and was taken by air ambulance to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough for treatment, while the other two – described as “walking wounded” – were treated at the University Hospital of North Durham.

Police said two air ambulances were called in, along with several conventional ambulances.

William Robinson, 47, who lives close by, said he could do nothing to help the bus driver, whom he found collapsed in the vehicle.

“The driver of the bus was slumped across the handrail,” the railway ticket enforcement officer said.

“He was in a very poor condition. We tried to get the doors open and in the end we had to go in through the back.

“The driver had no pulse and obviously he had died straight away. It must have been instant.” Mr Robinson said he then went to check on the welfare of the passengers while he waited for the emergency services.

He added: “It was the worst accident I have ever seen and it is unbelievable it happened on a small road like this.

“I cannot work out what has happened. It is just fortunate that neither bus was full.”

Another eyewitness, Rob Purvis, 44, of Newfield, said: “No-one actually saw it but people heard a bang.

“I was coming down the road in my car and saw that the bus looked as if it had crashed into the hedge and somehow another bus was involved.”

Both vehicles remained upright despite the impact, on a road in a residential area.

Gail McKeith, landlady at the Newfield Inn in Newfield Road, said neighbours were struggling to understand how the crash had happened on a 30mph stretch of road.

“We’re all quite worried,” she said, “It’s not a dangerous road - it’s a village with a 30mph speed limit. We don’t know how it happened.

“Lots of the windows have been smashed in but we can’t see much now because the road has been closed off.”

Janet Bell, who lives nearby, said: “I’ve been outside and there are people from fire brigade, police and ambulance there.

“It looks like the vehicles crashed head on.

“We’ve not had anything like this before. It’s a 30mph limit and cars go too fast along there.”

The North East Ambulance Service said the coach driver, was taken to Newcastle General Hospital with injuries including critical head injuries, chest injuries and lower leg trauma.

A spokesman said the first ambulance had arrived on the scene within eight minutes of the alarm being raised.

A total of seven ambulances and two air ambulances were scrambled to the accident in total, he added.