A college bus which crashed off a road into a river “like a scene out of the movie Speed” had suffered “brake failure and a jammed accelerator”, according to one of the first witnesses to reach the scene.
Police have praised the bravery of members of the public and emergency services who helped rescue some of the students and the driver who were trapped on board the Bluestar bus following the accident in Bishopstoke Road, Eastleigh, Hampshire.
Emergency services were alerted following the crash just before 10am on Thursday, with 20 people including the driver on board and five people being taken to hospital.
The passengers were all students on their way to Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, according to Hampshire Constabulary.
A force spokesman confirmed two people – the driver and a passenger – had suffered serious injuries but their injuries were not “life-threatening”.
Eyewitness Kelly West, who lives nearby, said the driver had told her the bus had suffered mechanical failure prior to the crash.
She said: “I heard some noise, I looked out of the window and he just came careening into the river.
“It felt like he was doing about 60 miles an hour, it felt very fast and obviously he just went straight through the barriers and into the river.”
Ms West said she rushed to the scene and could hear people shouting, and she found the driver who she said was trapped and “panicking”.
She said: “I told him to stop panicking, help was on its way and he said the brakes failed and the accelerator was jammed and that he was trying to avoid cars.”
Ms West said the students were “shocked” and concerned for the driver.
She said some of them were stuck on the bus because a person had been injured on the stairs and she believed one of the students had suffered a broken arm.
She said: “We got about 10 of them off of the bus and into the garden and just got them drinks and got them sat down.
“They were really shocked, bless them, really, wanting their parents, obviously, then the parents started to arrive.”
She added: “One of the young adults said the bus was just getting faster and faster as it came down the road and they didn’t know what he was going to do.
“So I can well imagine they were all thinking they were going to die, quite frankly. It was a bit like Speed, the Sandra Bullock film, it felt like that, to be honest.”
Ms West said one of the students told her the bus had started to take a different route which she believed was because it could not be slowed down enough to take a turn.
She said: “I’m guessing because he knew that there was a problem, he decided to carry on down the main road because he’d have ended up in a house otherwise.
“I spoke to him. He was completely compos mentis and, unless he had had a black-out and came round, he was very with it and he was very concerned as to what was happening.
“It does appear that what he was saying was that the brakes didn’t work and the accelerator was jammed because it was horrifically fast, it was speeding massively.
“We get heavy traffic along this road all the time and it bounces and it makes a house rumble, but this was just on another level.”
Barton Peveril student Freddie Sampson described the “manic” scene on board the bus as the driver “lost control”.
He told the BBC: “We ran into a lamppost and the whole windscreen shattered.
“It was like we couldn’t stop and had to weave through traffic trying not to hit any cars and then the bus driver lost control – we went flying into the river.
“It was all a bit manic. No-one really knew what was going on. I looked out the front to see people moving out of the way, like cars out the front… I looked round… they were all confused and scared.”
Inspector Andy Tester, of Hampshire Constabulary, said: “It must have been terrifying and my thoughts are very much with the children and the driver on the bus, who must have had a terrifying experience.”
He said several people including the driver were trapped on board when emergency services arrived.
He said: “There was a lot of bravery shown by many people who were first on scene, who didn’t have training to work in water and weren’t equipped, but quickly backed up by our fire and ambulance colleagues who did have the right training to make it safe and make it a safe working environment.”
Mr Tester added that it will be a “complex” operation to remove the bus, which has suffered severe damage to the front and ended up in the water below the level of the road.
A South Central Ambulance Service spokesman said it scrambled five ambulances, two helicopters, and specialist response units to the scene, while Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service sent crews from Eastleigh, St Mary’s, Redbridge, Hightown and Portchester.
Richard Tyldsley, Bluestar general manager, said: “Our thoughts are with everybody involved, and we wish those who were injured a full and speedy recovery.
“At this time, we do not know the circumstances behind this incident and are carrying out an immediate investigation. We are also assisting the police as they carry out their own inquiries.”
In a video of the incident, a student on board the bus can be heard saying: “Oh my god, we are going to die, we’re actually going to die” before screaming can be heard and the footage ends.
