Bus crashes into Llandudno Junction garden

Dec 9 2010 by Mari Jones, North Wales Weekly News

A WOMAN was injured and a driver was left in shock when a bus crashed into a garden.

Residents on Llandudno Junction’s Victoria Drive were shocked to see an Arriva bus had skidded off the road in icy conditions and crashed into a garden wall around 8.30am on Saturday.

Ann Curry lives at the house and said she was in bed when the bus came crashing through her garden wall.

She said: “I was just thinking about getting up and heard a bit of bang, but I just thought a car had gone over the sleeping policeman too fast.

“I got up and then saw that a bus was in my garden, but I was very calm about it.

“Jumping up and down screaming isn’t going to help anyone.

“The poor driver was in shock, I made him a cup of tea, and a lady was taken to hospital.

“My garden wall and fir tree have gone but I’m just glad no one was seriously injured.

“The postman was late that morning, he could easily have been walking down the road and been hit.”

She added: “The only thing I found surprising was that the gritters came but only gritted the bit where the bus slid! The rest of the road was just as bad.

“After the bus had gone I went to Chester for the day, as there was no point sitting at home feeling I was missing out.”

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, was eating breakfast when the incident happened: “We were having breakfast when we heard a bang. My children said there was snow falling from our roof but we were surprised to see a bus right in our neighbour’s garden!”

He added: “I went onto the bus. The driver was in shock, he was a great guy and was concerned and really upset.

“Everybody on the bus said he had been driving very carefully.”

A spokeswoman from North Wales Fire and Rescue confirmed the incident and added: “We were called around 8.19am. We made the area safe and checked for casualties.

“We sent three fire engines, we used the inflatable bags and blocks to lift the bus.

“We contacted a forestry worker to sue a chainsaw to cut the roots under the bus.”

A spokesman for the ambulance confirmed that a 58-year-old woman was taken to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd after reporting pain to her left side. She was discharged shortly afterwards.

A spokeswoman for Arriva said the incident had been caused by black ice on the roads.

Residents say there was another crash involving a bus on the road last week but this has not been confirmed.

Now residents have questioned why there was no grit on the road.

One Victoria Drive resident, who wished not to be named, said: “This road wasn’t gritted properly at all. That bus could’ve killed people, this has been an accident waiting to happen.”

But a spokesman from Conwy County Council said that all the roads were being gritted, but Saturday was particularly icy and even gritted roads could be hazardous.

Councillor Mike Priestley added:“I think we should praise the driver for his actions.

“I think it could have been a lot worse.”