Lucky escape after driver appears to have passed out

There was high drama this morning (31st March) as a public bus crashed into a block of flats in Ranelagh Gardens, Fulham, hospitalising the driver and injuring a man within the building.

Eyewitnesses have said that the driver appeared to have passed out at the wheel, though fortunately no passengers were on board at the time.

(Picture courtesy of Howard Timms)

The collision, which occurred at around half past ten in the morning, came just after the bus had begun to stop by Putney Bridge Station. From here, in a bizarre turn of events, the double-decker seemed to accelerate on into the side of a brick building.

BBC newsreader Sophie Raworth, who was at the scene, had this to say: "The bus had just pulled up outside the station and then suddenly took off, ripping up railings as it went, and slammed into the flats...everyone [is] saying it was amazing that no-one else was hurt."

(Photo: @SophieRaworth)

(Picture: @SophieRaworth)

The London Ambulance Service tweeted that ambulance crew had treated the bus driver, a 59-year-old woman, for neck, back and leg pain, before she was taken on to Charing Cross Hospital. A man, believed to be a resident in a ground floor flat, was also treated at the scene by paramedics, though did not need to be sent to hospital for further treatment. The London Fire Brigade also tweeted from the scene. Neither body, however, either confirmed or denied initial claims suggesting that the driver was unconscious at the time of the crash.

The road outside Putney Bridge Station has been cordoned off, with a number of bus services diverted. The TFL tweeted from @TFLBusAlerts: “Due to a road traffic collision on Putney Bridge Bus Stn, routes 39, 85, 93, 265, 270 and 414 are on diversion & will not be stopping at the station.”

April 1, 2014