Carnage after bus hits shops on high street
TWO passengers were trapped and eight others injured yesterday when a double-decker bus careered off a busy high street and smashed into a shop.
Firefighters used cutting gear to free the women from the wreckage and three of those hurt needed hospital treatment.
The vehicle drifted off course when the driver suffered what was thought to have been a blackout.
Smoke billowed from the bottom of the stricken London bus and witnesses reported seeing “a lot of blood” near those pinned to their seats.
Last night London transport chiefs launched an investigation into the morning rush hour drama in Battersea, south-west London.
Passenger Amy Mullineux said she feared for her life as the Number 77 bus ploughed into the Poggenpohl Kitchen Design Centre in Lavender Hill.
The 40-year-old nurse added: “I looked up. I realised we were crashing. It was all happening in slow motion, it was very surreal.
Crushed
“I braced myself, thinking ‘Oh my God, I am going to die’. But then I was like, ‘No, I am not going to die’, as we started to stop. People were getting off the bus, there was a lot of commotion. My thinking was, I need to get up the stairs.
“I went on the top of the stairs. There was a lady up there. I have got her blood all over me.
“She was bad. She was crushed to about her waist. I couldn’t see her legs – the bus was crushed in. I was with her and she gave me her phone.
“She was in her 40s. She was quite badly injured, there was blood everywhere. She was conscious. She was panicking.”
Another passenger, Andrew Matthews, 34, added: “I was on the top floor at the back, fortunately.
“I noticed the bus drifting. I heard a smash and saw the roof of the shop going through the bus from the front left. It went to the fourth or fifth row.
“I wedged myself in, bracing myself. As soon as the bus came to a stop there was yelling, screaming.
“I noticed a lady wedged in the front right-hand side. She was screaming for help. There was a lot of blood.”
A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman said three people, including the driver, were taken to hospital.
She added: “Two were described as ‘priority’ cases in a stable condition and one had minor injuries. Seven others were treated at the scene.”