School bus crash (From Worcester News)

Council ploy to be rid of an unwanted tree ;)

my god worcester news and thats news.look at the minimal damage.i came back from malvern on sat eve about 2200 and there was obviously a quite bad smash opposite ransom avenue but i dont stop and camera fone/record incident as i respect those involved

Would mr wilson have made that comment if a school child had been injured or worse?.I hope not

It's a picture of a tree,and taken after the event.

Worcester Lad wrote:
Would mr wilson have made that comment if a school child had been injured or worse?.I hope not

I think it was supposed to satirical/cutting edge and witty. Better luck next time Mr Wilson.

Worcester Lad wrote:
Would mr wilson have made that comment if a school child had been injured or worse?.I hope not

I hope not. But, strangely, they weren't, and the worst that happened is a dented tree ... so let's not get all cranky :)

IMPORTANT: I have seen single and double-deck schoolbuses travelling with groups of kids standing right at the front next to the driver - sometimes when the bus is a long way from the school.

In event of an impact, injuries are likely.
If YOUR children travel this way, you need to take action !!

Also the mayhem of traffic congestion around BEO, means that more accidents are inevitable.


Hardly up-to-date with modern health&safety -- is it ?!!

So glad no one was injured but the trees do make visibility problems around there for cars never mind double decker buses

I was there, on the bus and there were much more than 15 people on the bus, it was packed! It was a very scary experience.

How can 15 ppl on a double decker bus be packed I thought ppl from the Provences were intellegent and the impact was on the corner of the bus and must have lasted no more than few seconds so please don't dramatize it too much although I'm glad ur ok to tell the tale in many years to come

no police attended a crash involving a school bus that demolished a tree- says it all, they were probably too busy setting a speed camera up on Woodgreen Drive.

All children should have seats and seat belts as they must in a car.

Hi indeas4all,
I think I have a few tiny pieces of glass in me but thats all. Most people got the same apart from a few people that got hurt and I see your point about it only lasting a few seconds but I think it was mostly shock that made it more scary.

I have expressed concern in the past to the school regarding children standing up on buses.

kwooster wrote:
IMPORTANT: I have seen single and double-deck schoolbuses travelling with groups of kids standing right at the front next to the driver - sometimes when the bus is a long way from the school.

In event of an impact, injuries are likely.
If YOUR children travel this way, you need to take action !!

Also the mayhem of traffic congestion around BEO, means that more accidents are inevitable.


Hardly up-to-date with modern health&safety -- is it ?!!

If you travel by bus you will see that the capacity allows for standing passengers!!!

The Evening News needs to get their facts right before printing a story like this. getting the true facts from the driver may have shown that that the tree was actually rotten all the way through and collapsed into bus. Also that the stupid idiot driving the car which caused the bus to swerve needs to take some accountability. Not only did it scare all the kids on the bus but think about the driver as well this is his livelihood and reading an article like this can be harmful to a good drivers reputation

Looking at that trunk, it seems the tree was too close to the road, which probably made matters worse. If it was too close, shouldn't the council have removed the tree years ago?

I always understood that double deckers were not allowed down Battenhall for the very reason that they might strike one of the many historic trees. Can anyone either confirm or deny this?

Yes there are far too many trees all over Worcester causing problems for pedestrians and motorists alike a lot of them are on corners and blocking drivers view of oncoming vehicles/ pedestrians the council should make this a priority and would help some ppl of the dole queue

ideas4all wrote:
Yes there are far too many trees all over Worcester causing problems for pedestrians and motorists alike a lot of them are on corners and blocking drivers view of oncoming vehicles/ pedestrians the council should make this a priority and would help some ppl of the dole queue

Absolutely. We should ban trees. Pass a law against them.
And then we should stop putting buildings and roads so close to trees and complaining about it.

I was on the bus myself and I can assure you all that there was more than 15 people. What happened is no fault of our bus driver, if he was to continue driving it would have been a head on collision with the other car, by swerving onto the pavement our bus driver saved us all from being involved in a worse crash. By the looks of the pictures the tree was rotten and was going to fall anyway, nobody is going to know the truth if the bus forced the tree to fall or the tree fell onto the bus because it was rotten. Who knows? There were no serious injuries, some of us were shaken up, have stiff necks, headaches an scratches but we are all ok, school dealt with the situation very well making sure people that went to get cleaned up from the glass were ok and kept us calm, a handful of people went home because of aches and pains. As far as I am aware, for the last 5 years double decker busses have been driving down the road and have probably been for many more years. To be honest, I do not think that the tree was safe, it looks too close to the road, and was rotting inside, it could have happened to anyone and anything over time. I just want the person that was driving towards our bus to aknowledge what has. The tree smashed the windows on the side of the pavement shattering 2 panels over the students and taking a small chunk of the bus off. And our bus driver is NOT to blame.

My daughter was involved in this incident she came home from school very shaken up and we wasn't even informed of this happening,expect better communication from her school tbh what was hurting them sending home a news later on what happened even though they didn't have the decency to phone us and yes I understand their was a lot of children on this bus but surely being the parents we have the right to know!!!

Wilson I was talking about the trees that were near curbs and corners that impair vision

saucerer wrote:
Looking at that trunk, it seems the tree was too close to the road, which probably made matters worse. If it was too close, shouldn't the council have removed the tree years ago?

I agree, the tree looks very close to the road. May be if the highways department took action years ago and removed the tree before it became too big and too close to the road, this accident could have been minimised. Their inactions makes them culpable. I always thought there was something somewhere which says that object must be a set distance away from a road.

If the tree had been removed years ago then the bus would probably have crashed into the wall. Should that be removed as well? Some people seem to be looking to blame the council for just about everything. They should get out more. Oh I forgot, they even blamed the council for them not being able to go out!

ideas4all wrote:
Wilson I was talking about the trees that were near curbs and corners that impair vision

I suppose the question is, why build your curbs and roads near trees and then complain about it?

Karl Hunderson wrote:
If the tree had been removed years ago then the bus would probably have crashed into the wall. Should that be removed as well? Some people seem to be looking to blame the council for just about everything. They should get out more. Oh I forgot, they even blamed the council for them not being able to go out!

if the tree had not had been so rotten it would not have collapsed into the bus in the first place. The driver swerved to avoid an oncoming car who was trying to play beat the bus. Because of the totally unthoughtful motorist the driver had no alternative but to swerve, The bus mirror caught the tree that was it. But because the tree was so rotten it caused all the damage.

ideas4all wrote:
Yes there are far too many trees all over Worcester causing problems for pedestrians and motorists alike a lot of them are on corners and blocking drivers view of oncoming vehicles/ pedestrians the council should make this a priority and would help some ppl of the dole queue

Felling trees is a very skilled job involving a great deal of training, particularly when it is in the vicinity of the public highway, where traffic control measure etc come into play. So should trees be the target of an overzealous clearance policy, it wouldn't be as simple as pulling people out of the dole queue to do the work.

grumpy woman wrote:
All children should have seats and seat belts as they must in a car.

Our bus that we use every day and the bus involved in the crash (S5) does not have seat belts, as far as I am aware, most of the other public and hired school buses do not either.

skychip wrote:
I have expressed concern in the past to the school regarding children standing up on buses.

If a bus is full we have no choice but to stand up. Especially in the evening, we have a single decker which gets filled up before a majority of the year 10s and year 11s get onto the bus and there is quite a lot of us within those two years that get the bus. All our bus drivers try to keep us behind them but there are some days where there is no room to stand behind the driver. All the students that are standing know the risk of standing by the driver but we can not help it when there are no seats left and no room to stand behind the driver.

Karl Hunderson wrote:
If the tree had been removed years ago then the bus would probably have crashed into the wall. Should that be removed as well? Some people seem to be looking to blame the council for just about everything. They should get out more. Oh I forgot, they even blamed the council for them not being able to go out!

As I have said before I was on the bus myself. The person to blame is the driver in the oncoming car. Our bus was not going to park up on the pavement, therefore if the tree was not there we would not have hit anything. I think that the tree was going to fall down at some stage because of it being rotten inside. The council know how old the trees are and how often the road gets used by double decker buses, coaches and lorries and should have kept an eye on the old trees. I believe the council should check the other old trees and cut them down before they can cause any damage to another vehicle and any passers by. The life of us school kids going through that road every day is more important than a tree that is already dead.

_asherleen wrote:

Karl Hunderson wrote:
If the tree had been removed years ago then the bus would probably have crashed into the wall. Should that be removed as well? Some people seem to be looking to blame the council for just about everything. They should get out more. Oh I forgot, they even blamed the council for them not being able to go out!

As I have said before I was on the bus myself. The person to blame is the driver in the oncoming car. Our bus was not going to park up on the pavement, therefore if the tree was not there we would not have hit anything. I think that the tree was going to fall down at some stage because of it being rotten inside. The council know how old the trees are and how often the road gets used by double decker buses, coaches and lorries and should have kept an eye on the old trees. I believe the council should check the other old trees and cut them down before they can cause any damage to another vehicle and any passers by. The life of us school kids going through that road every day is more important than a tree that is already dead.

The council should be held responsible too for this accident. Not only have they allowed this tree to remain in place to close to the road, it was also decaying and should therefore have been removed a long time ago. Imagine if someone was walking near the tree in strong winds. Their failure to act could be cited as negligence. The school, bus company and parents must complain to the highways department about this incident as well as instruct them to check out the other trees.

Redhillman wrote:

_asherleen wrote:

Karl Hunderson wrote:
If the tree had been removed years ago then the bus would probably have crashed into the wall. Should that be removed as well? Some people seem to be looking to blame the council for just about everything. They should get out more. Oh I forgot, they even blamed the council for them not being able to go out!

As I have said before I was on the bus myself. The person to blame is the driver in the oncoming car. Our bus was not going to park up on the pavement, therefore if the tree was not there we would not have hit anything. I think that the tree was going to fall down at some stage because of it being rotten inside. The council know how old the trees are and how often the road gets used by double decker buses, coaches and lorries and should have kept an eye on the old trees. I believe the council should check the other old trees and cut them down before they can cause any damage to another vehicle and any passers by. The life of us school kids going through that road every day is more important than a tree that is already dead.

The council should be held responsible too for this accident. Not only have they allowed this tree to remain in place to close to the road, it was also decaying and should therefore have been removed a long time ago. Imagine if someone was walking near the tree in strong winds. Their failure to act could be cited as negligence. The school, bus company and parents must complain to the highways department about this incident as well as instruct them to check out the other trees.

Oh dear! A professional victim! Calm down, these things happen!! You can't just blame the council for everything. The council and highways rarely check their trees anyway, it's often outsourced to a contractor who is responsible.

I think someone has a bad case of "villification-itis" ...

mr_wilson15 wrote:

Redhillman wrote:

_asherleen wrote:

Karl Hunderson wrote:
If the tree had been removed years ago then the bus would probably have crashed into the wall. Should that be removed as well? Some people seem to be looking to blame the council for just about everything. They should get out more. Oh I forgot, they even blamed the council for them not being able to go out!

As I have said before I was on the bus myself. The person to blame is the driver in the oncoming car. Our bus was not going to park up on the pavement, therefore if the tree was not there we would not have hit anything. I think that the tree was going to fall down at some stage because of it being rotten inside. The council know how old the trees are and how often the road gets used by double decker buses, coaches and lorries and should have kept an eye on the old trees. I believe the council should check the other old trees and cut them down before they can cause any damage to another vehicle and any passers by. The life of us school kids going through that road every day is more important than a tree that is already dead.

The council should be held responsible too for this accident. Not only have they allowed this tree to remain in place to close to the road, it was also decaying and should therefore have been removed a long time ago. Imagine if someone was walking near the tree in strong winds. Their failure to act could be cited as negligence. The school, bus company and parents must complain to the highways department about this incident as well as instruct them to check out the other trees.

Oh dear! A professional victim! Calm down, these things happen!! You can't just blame the council for everything. The council and highways rarely check their trees anyway, it's often outsourced to a contractor who is responsible.

I think someone has a bad case of "villification-
itis" ...

Something needs to be done about this, I understand that the council do not go around checking all their trees, but when something like this happens very close to a school and a busy road all the other trees could oppose the same risk as this one did that fell onto our bus. What happened wasn't funny, it was frightening and some people have been left really scared and the council should consider all the other trees that have been there since the Victorian times to be on the safe side.

_asherleen wrote:

mr_wilson15 wrote:

Redhillman wrote:

_asherleen wrote:

Karl Hunderson wrote:
If the tree had been removed years ago then the bus would probably have crashed into the wall. Should that be removed as well? Some people seem to be looking to blame the council for just about everything. They should get out more. Oh I forgot, they even blamed the council for them not being able to go out!

As I have said before I was on the bus myself. The person to blame is the driver in the oncoming car. Our bus was not going to park up on the pavement, therefore if the tree was not there we would not have hit anything. I think that the tree was going to fall down at some stage because of it being rotten inside. The council know how old the trees are and how often the road gets used by double decker buses, coaches and lorries and should have kept an eye on the old trees. I believe the council should check the other old trees and cut them down before they can cause any damage to another vehicle and any passers by. The life of us school kids going through that road every day is more important than a tree that is already dead.

The council should be held responsible too for this accident. Not only have they allowed this tree to remain in place to close to the road, it was also decaying and should therefore have been removed a long time ago. Imagine if someone was walking near the tree in strong winds. Their failure to act could be cited as negligence. The school, bus company and parents must complain to the highways department about this incident as well as instruct them to check out the other trees.

Oh dear! A professional victim! Calm down, these things happen!! You can't just blame the council for everything. The council and highways rarely check their trees anyway, it's often outsourced to a contractor who is responsible.

I think someone has a bad case of "villification-

itis" ...

Something needs to be done about this, I understand that the council do not go around checking all their trees, but when something like this happens very close to a school and a busy road all the other trees could oppose the same risk as this one did that fell onto our bus. What happened wasn't funny, it was frightening and some people have been left really scared and the council should consider all the other trees that have been there since the Victorian times to be on the safe side.

As one of the earlier posters mentioned, the council should be culpable due to their neglect of ensuring trees do not cause a problem. I would suggest that those involved in this accident contact the highway department's principal highways liaison engineer as he's effectively responsible for managing our roads.

With all due respect, if the problem was caused by the oncoming car driver, then surely the council's management of it's tree stocks is irrelevant! Unfortunately accidents happen (or are caused) and that is the way life has been since the beginning of time! If the bus had been forced into a perfectly healthy tree or the consequences had been worse, would there be calls for all trees to be chopped down just in case a similar incident happened again in the distant future?
Also I dread to think think how much my community charge would escalate if if all their trees had to be inspected every (say) year. And then the committee meetings to discuss the findings and how rotten a tree must be or how far from the road (or potential crash run off area) the tree must be to cause any potential public hazard!!
Luckily this time there were no serious injuries but accidents happen, and no one can expect the council to wrap the city in cotton wool so nobody can get hurt!

Smyffie wrote:
With all due respect, if the problem was caused by the oncoming car driver, then surely the council's management of it's tree stocks is irrelevant! Unfortunately accidents happen (or are caused) and that is the way life has been since the beginning of time! If the bus had been forced into a perfectly healthy tree or the consequences had been worse, would there be calls for all trees to be chopped down just in case a similar incident happened again in the distant future?
Also I dread to think think how much my community charge would escalate if if all their trees had to be inspected every (say) year. And then the committee meetings to discuss the findings and how rotten a tree must be or how far from the road (or potential crash run off area) the tree must be to cause any potential public hazard!!
Luckily this time there were no serious injuries but accidents happen, and no one can expect the council to wrap the city in cotton wool so nobody can get hurt!

I can see where you're coming from. However, if the tree that fell onto our bus was rotten what is to say that the other 'historic' trees are not rotten inside too? I do not mean to sound rude to anyone, however unless you were on the bus yourself then you will not realise how much trauma it has caused many of us. I want something to be done and someone to take responsibility for this accident.

I think the Cathedral should be pulled down so we could build a bigger roundabout by Elgar's statue to make it easier for drivers to get to work 10 seconds earlier.

Trees are a part of nature and this, and most of the trees in Battenhall Road, appear to be far older than anybody alive. While modern life demands that we remove anything gets in our way, reading through the comments above make me despair about a future where we blame our diminishing Council for everything that ever happens.

The real blame is with an an impatient driver (probably a pupils parent) who caused what could have been a major accident involving children - without any consequence to themselves. Had they caused a bigger crash in which children were killed, be sure the police would have traced the car and a lengthy prison sentence would have followed.

Some of the driving around schools by parents dropping their children off is appalling and that should be the concern of bloggers on this site - not blaming the Council or (as Jasper Carrott put it) "trees coming in the other direction".