West Hoathly Seagull
Honorary Ruffian
My theory is that many passengers were standing up getting ready to get off the bus at the next stop. Some would have fallen down the stairs & as it was after 9 am there would have been elderly passengers downstairs who would sustain more severe injuries than youngsters who would be more steady on their feet.
I'm not sure that speed came into the equation but the shock of a sudden impact.
That was what caused the fatalities in the Cannon Street train crash; people were getting up ready to get out, as it was one of the old slam door type trains. The train was only going at 5 mph when it hit the buffers. Whichever radio station I heard it on (could have been Radio 2 or 4) said it was thought that the driver of the second bus had suffered a medical incident. I really do hope the casualties all make a full recovery. As for safety measures, I suppose they could ban all car traffic from North Street - presumably cars needing to leave town could go via North Road - we sometimes go that way after leaving the theatre at night, and possibly introduce one of those guided systems like Crawley has, though that would be extremely expensive and you'd have the issue of how pedestrians cross.
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