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Belfast bus crash: 30 people treated for their injuries | |
(about 7 hours later) | |
A senior member of the Ambulance Service has said it was very fortunate that no-one was seriously injured or killed after a double-decker bus overturned in Belfast on Sunday. | |
Around 30 people, including two children and a pregnant woman, were injured in the accident. | |
Cutting equipment was used to free the badly injured driver from the bus. | |
The injured passengers were taken to four hospitals in Belfast. | |
The bus travelling towards Belfast city centre mounted the kerb just outside Central Station and collapsed on its side around 14:15 BST. | |
John McPoland from the href="http://www.niamb.co.uk/" >Northern Ireland Ambulance Service said more than 20 of its personnel attended the scene. | |
'Pandemonium' | |
"My first thought when I heard about the incident and I was on my way to the scene was that we were going to be coming into a scene which was going to be absolute pandemonium," he said. | |
"We didn't know what we were going to find. | |
"We weren't sure how many people were on the bus until we actually got there, but thankfully when our first rapid response paramedic arrived he was quite quickly able to feed through to our control centre that the people on the bus were not seriously hurt." | |
Nine people were taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital, including the bus driver. Another 10 people attended the City Hospital, while eight were taken to the Mater Hospital. | |
Two children were transported to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children and a pregnant woman was brought to the maternity unit at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald. | Two children were transported to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children and a pregnant woman was brought to the maternity unit at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald. |
Most of the injured passengers were treated for cuts, bruises and sprains. | |
'Neck pain' | |
"A lot of people were shocked, some people had lots of cuts and bruises, there was lots of broken glass about the place," said Mr McPoland. | |
"One or two people were complaining of neck pain, so we had to treat that as a potential spinal injuries for about six or seven of the passengers onboard. | |
"The bus driver had to be cut out out by the Fire Service to allow us to remove him from the vehicle." | |
Stacy Woods witnessed the crash. | |
"It was quite dramatic. I ran up right away just to see if I could help out," she said. | |
"A lot of people were there on the scene and helped out. | |
"A lot of people from the oncoming traffic just went over to help smash open the windows to get the people out. It was very public driven. | |
"The guy I took to hospital and his baby were ok, that was all that mattered." | |
Investigation | |
Ciaran Rogan from bus company, Translink, said it was too early to say if the accident had been caused by mechanical failure or human error. | |
"At the moment between our engineering staff and the police, who are taking the lead in terms of the investigation, all we know are the facts of the incident," he said. | "At the moment between our engineering staff and the police, who are taking the lead in terms of the investigation, all we know are the facts of the incident," he said. |
"The bus mounted the kerb, hit a wall at the side of the pavement and fell onto its side. | "The bus mounted the kerb, hit a wall at the side of the pavement and fell onto its side. |
"Beyond that we are not in a position to say what caused it. | |
"The fact that it is so unusual means the investigation will have to be fairly rigorous and until we find out the results of that investigation, it's impossible to say exactly why it happened." | "The fact that it is so unusual means the investigation will have to be fairly rigorous and until we find out the results of that investigation, it's impossible to say exactly why it happened." |