Unwanted bus stop in couple's front garden

Three elderly people were injured after the Grant Palmer bus went out of control in Stoke Road at around 4.20pm on Wednesday.

Paul Sheppard, 68, told the LBO how the bus had ended up crashing through his boundary brick wall and fence, felling a tree in his garden and causing another tree to lurch dangerously towards his neighbour’s property.

Mr Sheppard said the full length of the bus had come to rest across his land, where the wall and fence had stood.

He said: “We just heard one bang and then the second bang was our fence. It was a very loud bang.

“I was on the PC upstairs and when I looked out the window there was the bus!

“Two trees were hit. One fell down and the other was leaning over towards the house next door.

“We were advised to get the second tree down as soon as possible. If there had been another storm it might well have gone down on next door’s house.”

Mr Sheppard added: “The driver was exceedingly lucky because the fencing had gone through the windscreen but not far enough to hit the him – it could have staked him. He just ended up with cuts to his hand.”

He said his next door neighbour called the emergency services, while Mr Sheppard’s wife got a blanket for one of the female bus passengers who was in shock.

Mr Sheppard added the timing of the accident was fortunate too. “Luckily no-one wa walking along there. If it had been around ten minutes earlier there would have beena lot of schoolchildren.”

He also called for the removal of the bollard in the middle of Stoke Road near his driveway.

He said it had narrowed the road as a safety measure, but with the subsequent introduction of a speed camera the bollard was now more of a hazard than a help.

He said: “Lorries are forced to come nearer the pavement because of the bollard and their wind mirrors come over the pavement as a result. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a death along here.”

And it’s not the first time there has been dramatic accident along Stoke Road.

He recalled: “A few years a go a car went into next door’s house in the middle of the night. We’re not sure how it happened but the vehicle went over a wall to hit the house.”

An East of England Ambulance spokesman confirmed they had attended the scene.

He said: “We were called to reports a bus had collided with a tree on Stoke Road, Leighton Buzzard.

“An ambulance attended and treated three elderly patients with minor injuries.

“They were all taken to Luton and Dunstable Hospital for further care. Their injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.”

A Beds Police spokesman added that the bus had been recovered and the scene was clear by 6pm.

Grant Palmer has to date failed to commenton the incident.