'I saw the bus coming straight towards us... it was like everything was in slow motion'
A woman whose house was hit by a double decker bus has spoken about how she saw the vehicle heading towards her home "as if in slow motion". Helen Jones was sitting in the living room of her home in Mansfield Road, Underwood, when she heard crashing sounds at 7.30am.
Mrs Jones and husband, Anthony, 50, rushed out to see if the driver was hurt. Helen said: "I heard a noise and looked out into the main road and saw the bus coming straight towards us, so I shouted to my husband, there is a bus quick get out of the way.
"Then it all just happened. It was in slow motion. I thought to myself, am I seeing this right?
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"We went out and tried to talk with him, and he was shook up, and we couldn't communicate with him. There were loads of other people there.
"We rang 999 and then they got him off the bus. We then had to get away from the property because we didn't know the extent of the damage. I think the post at the top of my drive saved the house next door as it stopped the bus from falling over into the next property."
Helen lives with her husband, two children, aged 15 and 17, and her two dogs. They are now back in their home after a structural surveyor said it was safe for them to remain.
She thanked her neighbours for their help and support during the ordeal. The 46-year-old added: "There was nobody else on the bus, or school children. Luckily my son has been going out a hour earlier for his exams, otherwise he would have been leaving at that minute and would have seen the bus coming straight towards him.
"It's so lucky that no one was seriously hurt apart from the driver, who we think is okay."
The 416 Skills School bus, run by a Nottingham-based bus company operating the service for Nottinghamshire County Council, is used by children in the Underwood area.
A transport manager at Nottinghamshire County Council said: “We are aware of a collision involving a bus operated by Skills Coaches that was on its way to undertake a school contract on behalf of the county council.
"There were no pupils on board at the time of the collision and Skills Coaches are investigating this incident.”
A spokesperson for East Midlands Ambulance Service said: “We received a call at 7.29 am on Tuesday 4 February to Mansfield Road in Underwood. The caller reported that there had been a road traffic collision. We sent a paramedic in a solo response car and two ambulances. One patient was taken to Queen’s Medical Centre via ambulance.”
A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Police said: "Police were called to Mansfield Road, Underwood, at 7.27 am today (4 February) to reports a bus had collided with a house.
"There were no passengers on the bus at the time. The driver was taken to hospital with injuries which are not believed to be life-altering or life-threatening. The road reopened at 12.15pm."