Claire Read thought the noise outside her home was thunder – until she looked out of the window and saw a bus sitting in the front garden where her children usually play
A bus carrying passengers has ploughed through the front garden of a family’s home in County Durham with a woman and her husband rushing to help the stricken driver.
Claire Read had just got out of bed at around 9.30am on Sunday when she heard what she first thought was thunder. The 41-year-old looked outside to find a single-decker Go North East bus had smashed through the wall of her property on Hilltop in Stanley, tearing down trees and destroying the football goal where her sons Charlie, 13, and Freddie, nine, regularly play.
Claire rushed outside with her husband Peter after hearing people shouting and immediately realised the driver needed help.
Around 10 passengers were believed to have been on board when the bus veered off Chester Road East after reportedly passing through traffic lights and striking a traffic island before crashing into the family’s garden.
Claire told ChronicleLive : “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 a bus on the drive.”
She added: “It was genuinely awful, the whole windscreen had come through. I had no shoes on and my husband had to bring them out because of the glass.
“It was very obvious that the driver had a medical event. The bus had come through traffic lights, hit a traffic island and veered into our property.”
Emergency services rushed to the scene, with firefighters helping remove the driver from the bus. One person was taken to University Hospital North Durham, although authorities have not confirmed whether this was the driver.
Despite the extensive damage to her home, Claire said her main concern was for those involved.
She added: “Hopefully the driver is okay, property can be replaced but lives can’t. There’s a hell of a lot of damage, but I’m not mad about it, these things happen. It’s been a bit of a stressful morning, I’m fine now but it’s been a bit of a shock.
“What could have been, the kids are always outside. The football goal is completely trashed so it’s just the ‘what if’.”
A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service said: “County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service was called to a road traffic collision involving a bus on the A693, Stanley, after the vehicle left the carriageway. There were concerns that the driver may have suffered a medical episode prior to the collision.
“One crew from Consett and one crew from High Handenhold attended the incident and worked alongside ambulance and police colleagues, providing assistance at the scene and assessing those involved. The service left the scene at 11.15am.”