Family’s miracle escape in bus crash
Published: September 29, 2006
A FAMILY of five had a “miracle” escape when a bus ploughed into their garden, smashed into their caravan and stopped just feet from their Sheffield home.
Graham Naylor, aged 42, his wife Cathy, 37, and their children Ben, seven, Gemma, four, and Thomas, three, were asleep at home on Woodrove Close, Woodthorpe, when the house was rocked by the crash at 7am today.
A single-decker First bus, driven by a 43-year-old woman, had apparently swerved to avoid a Vauxhall Corsa coming out of Nodder Road and then careered into the Naylors’ garden, caravan and shed.
The 17-year-old male driver of the Corsa, who passed his driving test only two weeks ago, was trapped in his mangled car after the smash and had to be cut free by firefighters.
He was rushed to the Northern General Hospital but his injuries this morning were not believed to be life threatening.
The driver of the bus - which was out of service at the time of the crash and had no passengers on board - was also taken to hospital for checks.
Surveying the wreckage outside his semi-detached home this morning Mr Naylor said: “Our caravan and shed are completely destroyed but it could have been a lot worse. The house could have been hit and who knows what might have happened.
“The impact on the caravan must have been pretty bad because the house shook, as did next door’s.
“If it had hit our house instead our daughter would have taken the brunt of it because her bedroom is just a few feet from where the bus stopped.
“It is a miracle we weren’t hit.”
Mr Naylor said he rushed out to help the two drivers involved in the smash after being woken by the noise of the collision.
“The bus driver was shaken up but the car driver, who was still in his car in the middle of the road, was unconscious,” he said.
“I thought I was dreaming when I heard the noise and looked out to see the bus in the garden and the caravan almost on its side. We were actually going away in the caravan this weekend.”
Mr Naylor said if the smash had happened an hour later his children, and others in the area, would have been leaving home to set off for school.
“This could easily have ended in tragedy,” he said.
A police investigation is now underway into the cause of the crash.
PC John Scruby, from South Yorkshire Police’s Road Policing Group, said: “It is early days but it appears as though the bus was travelling from Prince of Wales Road towards Woodthorpe as the car was coming out of the Nodder Road junction.
“We are unsure whether the car was intending to turn right or left, but there was a collision and the bus veered off the road.
“We did a sweep of the area for witnesses this morning but it was early so there were not many people about.”
First bus company commercial director Brandon Jones said: “Thankfully the bus driver, who has been with us since January 2002, is okay. She’s shaken but not injured.
“We’ve been told the car driver has gone to hospital but their injuries are not thought to be serious.”
If you enjoyed this good news Subscribe to Good News Blog
Share this
To share this simply copy and paste one of the below URL's: