London bus crash: Six people seriously injured
21 Dec BBC
More than 30 people have been injured, six of them seriously, in a
bus crash in south London.Two passengers who were trapped on the
double-decker bus in Kennington had to be freed, London Fire Brigade
said. The number 59, heading to King's Cross, swerved to avoid a vehicle
and hit a tree near the Ship pub on Kennington Road, said Transport for
London.
Fire crews, paramedics, the air ambulance and officers from the
Metropolitan Police went to the scene. London Ambulance Service said it
treated 32 patients in total. Twenty-five people were “walking wounded”
with cuts and bruises.The more seriously hurt had mostly head and leg
injuries, but none of them are in a life-threatening condition. The Met
Police said one of the seriously injured people was a male police
officer, who was on duty and in uniform. He sustained a broken elbow and
a pelvic injury. A man and a woman who were trapped in the bus also had
serious leg injuries.Jesse Fox, an actor from north London, was on the
top deck of the bus when it crashed, pinning the two passengers in their
seats.We were going along at a fairly normal speed and I heard people
shout and I could see out of my right hand window that it was swerving
to avoid a car,” he said. “Then I heard people shout a lot louder and
looked up and literally saw this tree crash through the front of the
bus. “Most people on the top deck were fine, but for the people at the
front it looked pretty bad.” The BBC's Rebecca Cafe, who went to the
scene, said the two trapped people had been freed by emergency services.
Transport for London's director for buses Mike Weston said: “Our
first concern is, of course, for the driver, passengers and others
involved in this incident and we can confirm the emergency services are
in attendance.There will be a thorough investigation into this incident
as a matter of urgency.”
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