DROWNED IN HIS CAR
Priest who was TV actor caught in flood ‘ Miracle’ as 52 children survive bus nightmare Family ‘lucky’ after landslide hits their home
AN Anglican priest who acted in Emmerdale and Heartbeat has drowned tragically in the storms that have swept the country.
But while tragedy struck for retired Reverend Roger Grainger, the families of 52 children were relieved after the students ‘miraculously’ survived when a schoolbus slid across a flooded road and tumbled into a ditch.
And in Galway, part of a family home was left like a ‘ bombsite’ after a landslide struck in the night, hitting the house
and leaving all inside – who had been in the front of the house – shocked but uninjured.
And in Cork, parents, children and rescuers spoke last night of their astonishment as they revealed how local schoolchildren had narrowly escaped death when a tree ripped through their bus after the crash.
They sang the praises of local people, who arrived on the scene with handsaws to cut the teenagers free, and the driver who smashed a window and helped to pull them to safety, despite eventually been taken away, suffering from the ‘shock’ after his ordeal.
Senior fire officer Billy Bane spoke of one young girl who had to be cut free after ‘a tree came through the window and trapped her’.
As the bus tumbled over in the ditch, the tree had come crashing through the back of it.
Asked what had happened, Mr Bane said: ‘ There was running water flowing down that hill all morning. It was raining here all night. The driver just lost it on the hill. It was all over in a shot.’
Rescuers said a crane had to be brought in to lift the bus and, to the relief of locals, the only thing they found underneath was a hurley.
The pupils – from St Colman’s College, Loreto Secondary School and Coláiste an Chraoibhín – had been travelling on the Ballyhooly-Fermoy Road in north Cork following torrential rainfall at 8.20 yesterday morning.
One pupil, Laura Curtin, described the incident as ‘terrifying.’ She said: ‘Everyone dropped to one side. The bus driver broke the glass and everybody was able to get out.
‘I was really scared. I kind of felt helpless as there were some people still stuck.’
Four fire brigades – two from Mitchelstown and two from Fermoy – were at the scene, with six ambulances.
‘I was really scared. I felt helpless’
Gardaí believe the surface water could have been a cause of the crash and Bus Éireann said it is investigating the accident.
At first, two students were trapped while most escaped through a broken window. Four were taken to hospital and one of the boys was said to have broken his leg.
Mr Bane, Station Officer at Fermoy Station, said: ‘We got one young boy out and he had a broken leg, but there was another young girl trapped at the back of the bus.
‘A tree came through the window and trapped her between the back seat and the tree. So we cut it.’
He said: ‘There was five in the back seat and when the bus turned over the tree came in through the glass.’
‘Most scrambled over it, except for the girl,’ he said.
‘She was a lucky girl. She only had a bit of bruising after we cut her out,’ he said.
And so were the rest of them, because he added that the children had been tossed around inside the bus and if it had turned over on its roof, ‘there would have been more injuries; they’d be falling from a height.’
When rescuers arrived, he said, students were huddled together on the narrow, meandering road ‘ in shock’, and looking for their phones to contact their parents.
One mother Eileen Gowan, from Ballyhooly, Co. Cork, whose children, Jeff and Caoimhe, were on the bus said: ‘My daughter came and told me that there was an accident. My second child is going to Cork University Hospital. She has bruising to her lip and her neck. I am just taking my boy home now, he’s okay but shaken.’
The students, aged between 13 and 17 years old, were coming to the end of their journey, after the first of them was picked up in nearby Kildinan.
A spokeswoman f or Glenferry Coaches, the operator which looks after the route on behalf of Bus Éireann, told the Mail the driver had ‘gone home in shock’ after the accident. She said he had dismissed the ‘hero’ tag put on him, after being praised by pupils and rescuers, and said he was just ‘happy there was a satisfactory outcome’.
Mr Bane also praised the efforts of the members of the public who came on the scene and tried to rescue the teenage girl who was trapped at the back of the bus.
He said: ‘In fairness there were people there and they got out the first young teenage boy and they were cutting the tree to rescue the young girl. They were cutting with a handsaw and I’d like to praise them too… they were people that came on the scene.’
The emergency services used a spinal board to rescue the young girl as a precaution, in case she had spinal or neck injuries.
The fire crew also anchored the bus to prevent it from turning over on its roof as they made the rescue. In his forty years’ experience, Mr Bane says he has never seen so many walk away from such an accident.
He said: ‘They were lucky the way the bus went. It was miraculous that they all walked away from it. No one hurt and 52 inside, a bus turned on its side, glass flying and trees going in through the window.’
Meanwhile, Marie Ring, principal of Loreto Secondary School, told the Mail last night said: ‘There was a huge relief in the Fermoy community that there were no fatalities. There were guardian angels working today and thankfully everyone got out of there okay.’
Ms Ring added: ‘I would like to thank the emergency service for their swift action and also the other schools involved. We are very relieved that everyone is safe but it has been a huge shock in the community.’
The schools had remained open
for the rest of the day following the accident.
The Loreto principal said: ‘Most of the students are now recovering at home or still getting checked out in hospital but everyone is doing well.’
There were 19 Loreto students on board the bus when it crashed.
Parish priest in Fermoy, Fr Aquin Casey, told the Mail: ‘The accident happened at a bad bend in the road on the Ballyhooly-Fermoy road in north Cork. It’s a miracle that we are not dealing with a tragedy here – the children mostly walked away unharmed.
‘The children were taken back to Coláiste an Chraoibhín, where they were collected by their parents and taken home.’
Christy Healy, principal of Coláiste an Chraoibhín said: ‘Staff and teachers from all three schools assisted at the scene. We are very lucky that nobody was seriously injured. Four students were brought by ambulance to Cork University Hospital where they are being treated.’
Mr Healy added: ‘We immediately established an emergency response centre in our PE hall in Coláiste an Chraoibhín.
‘On behalf of the three schools I would l i ke to thank the rapid response of An Garda Síochana, the Ambulance Service and Fire Brigade, who were all at the scene within minutes. The Garda and the Road Safety Authority have both launched separate investigations into the crash, and we await the outcome of both investigations,’ he added
The Mayor of County Cork, Councillor John Paul O’Shea spoke of his relief that lives were not lost in the incident.
‘Thankfully, all the injuries are not life threatening. Hopefully, everyone will make a full recovery.’ A Garda source said the whole incident ‘could have been a lot worse’.
‘You only have to look at the bus to know it could have been worse. Everyone was very lucky.’
Counselling and medical support was provided at all schools in particular Coláiste an Chraoibhín where the bulk of the students attend.