New College student bus in crash

Jan 27 2009 by Emma Davison, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A WOMAN driver had a lucky escape when her car collided with a bus full of college students.

She suffered minor injuries when her Vauxhall Astra car clipped the front of the double-decker bus as the vehicles travelled along Crosland Road towards Oakes at 8.30am yesterday.

The impact, which happened as the Astra tried to overtake the bus, sent the car smashing through a wall into a field.

The driver was treated for minor cuts to her hand, but didn’t require hospital treatment.

None of the pupils or the driver of the bus, which was on its way to Huddersfield New College, were harmed.

The accident happened after the car pulled out to overtake. It had to quickly pull back in to avoid a van travelling in the opposite direction.

The force of the collision with the bus sent the car across the road, demolishing a dry stone wall before coming to rest in the field.

Fire crews from Huddersfield, Elland, Halifax and Cleckheaton and a team from Cleckheaton Major Rescue Unit attended the scene.

The passengers waited while a replacement bus was called.

Dave Chadwick, watch manager of Elland fire station, said: “We didn’t know what we were going to find when we got the call and heard that a bus full of passengers had been involved but luckily everyone was fine – it could have been a lot worse.”