A passenger on a bus that crashed into a County Durham garden on Sunday says he wedged his legs behind the seat in front to prepare for the collision. David McLellen was taking the bus from Stanley to Washington, as he does every Sunday, to pick up his children, aged 10 and 11.
The 38-year-old had a football in his bag and was planning to take the kids to Newcastle to play in the park and go for some food. However, the journey was cut short when the bus driver had a medical episode and the bus veered from Chester Road East and into a property on Hilltop in Stanley.
Passenger recalls moments before crash
Reliving the journey, David told ChronicleLive: "I had just come off my phone and I had felt the bus judder and that was it obviously hitting the metal bits in the middle. I didn't see that coming, so I put my head up and I could feel the bus getting faster. I could see the tree coming so I wedged my legs behind the seat."
The single decker bus ended up in the Read family's garden, who were getting ready to go out. Claire Read told ChronicleLive after the incident on Sunday: "I was just getting up because we were going out and I heard a bang, I thought it was thunder at first. When it hit the tree behind the house, it made a horrendous noise and we heard people shouting. Then we just saw the bus on the drive."
Passenger helped driver after crash
David says there were a handful of passengers on the bus, but only the driver seemed to be injured. He says he rushed to the front of the bus to help the driver. He continued: "When the bus had come to a stop, I rang to the front because the driver's cab had burst open. The steering wheel was on his chest, so I was holding him up and kept talking to him."
ChronicleLive understands that the bus driver was taken to hospital following the incident. David was uninjured, but says that he has a swollen ankle and his body has been "achy ever since" the crash.
He added that the incident had made him think twice about taking the bus in future; but he would struggle to find an alternative to see his children in Washington. Go North East confirmed earlier in the week that it is supporting the relevant authorities with ongoing enquiries into the incident.
