Bus crashes

Hi "DBC" (of Nottinghamshire). I think the accident to which you mention is the one that involved one of the Daimler CVD6 buses on August 9th,1955!!! It was bus no.145 (KVC145) that was involved this time and it injured a 42 year old woman pedestrian (from the Moorfield) when it skidded on the wet road surface and crashed into the garden wall of a house on the corner of Aldermoor Lane (No.41) and Molesworth Avenue (just down the road from the Moorfield!!!). Members of the Works Ambulance from the nearby Humber factory heard the screech of brakes and ran over to help the injured woman. She was taken to Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital afterwards by a Works Ambulance from Humber Ltd!!! Fortunately there weren't too many passengers on the bus itself and neither they nor the driver and conductor were injured at all!!! The "HOLBROOKS" bound bus (on the "3" Route) received front end damage and was almost pointing in the opposite direction to which it was travelling when it came to a standstill, with most of the bus standing on the pavement and surrounded by bricks!!!

I don't think it was that one. The accident I remember definitely occurred at the junction of the Moorfield and Michell Close. I was at my grandmothers house a few doors away, and I remember seeing the crashed bus from her front garden. If you look on "Street View" you can even see that the roadside tree is smaller then others in the street, and is probably a replacement to the one knocked down by the bus.

Just recently I saw a photograph of an old West Midlands Passenger Executive (WMPTE) tow truck which was used to recover broken down and damaged buses. It was an AEC Matador which probably dated from the 1940's. This triggered a memory of a comparatively minor bus crash in Wilsons lane, Longford in the late 1970's. It was a Saturday I think, or maybe a Sunday, but it was the day that old 'Iron Bridge' railway bridge at the top of Bedworth Rd was replaced by the modern concrete span still in place today. Bedworth Road was closed so buses were being diverted along Wilsons Lane, Woodshires Road, and Oban Road. There is a low railway bridge in Woodshires Rd so the Coventry bus garage had borrowed a number of single deck buses to use on the 20 service between the city centre and Bedworth. It was one of these single deck buses that turned into Wilsons Lane and headed towards Woodshires Rd. Wilsons Lane bends significantly to the left just after the Novotel hotel. The bus negotiated this left hand bend without any problem, but for some reason continued to turn left rather than following the road which had now straightened out. The houses on the left are older detached houses and one in particular had a driveway guarded by some substantial brick built gate pillars. The bus struck this pillar which fractured off and gambolled across the front lawn before coming to rest. Luckily this heavy chunk of brickwork did not hit anything. The bus carried on over the stump of the pillar until it met a tree. The bus then appeared to have climbed up the tree and was left with the front wheels clear of the ground. Nobody was hurt, there was comparatively little damage to other property, but the bus was not in very good order. I did not see the accident but did witness the aftermath. The driver told people that he was used to driving his double deckers but the single decker had almost identical controls. The big difference, so he said, was that the double decker's steering self centred when he loosened his grip on the steering wheel, but the single decker did not do this and carried on it its left hand arc. The recovery phase was what made this crash stick in my mind. One of the Coventry bus garages sent out a flat bed Ford truck with a little Hiab crane on the back. This was backed up to the stricken bus and the crane pulled. The only effect was for the front wheels of the Ford truck to go skywards. The bus was well and truly stuck on the remains of the gate pillar and wedged into the tree. A Bus Inspector on the scene said that a bigger breakdown truck was required and that one was on the way from Summer Lane. Now I knew that Summer Lane was in Aston, Birmingham which was a fair distance. After some considerable time the ancient AEC Matador breakdown truck appeared, the driver and his mate appeared to be equally as old as the truck, and their overalls showed the evidence of many oil changes. I recall the driver being very indignant when someone queried how long it had taken them to get there. He said, 'I was doing 20 MPH on the A45 you know'. The trusty old breakdown truck soon hauled away the broken bus and the show was over. The bus stop at the top of Bedworth Road was still called 'Iron Bridge' for many years after the bridge became a more mundane concrete bridge.

The above crash occurred in March 1979 and involved Leyland National 6851 and 115 Wilsons Lane.