A terrible incident

As most people who read this will know, our colleagues at Wilts & Dorset suffered a terrible incident earlier today when one of their open-top double deckers overturned following a collision with a car, resulting in upper deck passengers being thrown clear of the bus.

Mercifully - almost unbelievably in fact - there were no fatalities and only a modest number of passengers were injured, and none of them too seriously.

This is the kind of incident that it just seems impossible to believe has really happened. The idea of an open top bus toppling over and passengers being thrown out is a concept almost impossible to visualise. What must have been going through their minds when they realised what was happening to them?

Tonight I am feeling sorry for the passengers who were caught up in this dreadful incident, and their families. I am also thinking of the bus driver, who I see is being praised by the police for minimising the severity of this incident. Thankfully I have never been personally involved in any serious collision as a driver, so find it difficult to truly understand what he must be going through, and so can only begin to imagine how he will come to terms with what has happened today.

But I also want to say a word for the other representatives of Wilts & Dorset who will have been involved. For all those who attended the scene, as well as all those left back at base trying to pick up the pieces, today will have been an horrific day. It is hard for anyone who hasn't been in a position of responsibility when something like this has occurred, to imagine that initial phone call which stops your world, and that dawning moment of realisation that something horrible has taken place. To then have to attend such an incident, to be confronted with the reality of what has taken place, will have taken their breath away.

I saw a brief interview with Andrew Wickham, Operations Director of Go South Coast, on the BBC website and although the interview was brief and factual, Andrew covered the essential information extremely well and clearly, impressively so. However, a 20 second interview barely touches the surface of a whole day of unfolding drama such as this, and whether it is now or later, I feel quite sure that today's events will leave emotional scars forever on all those involved.

While relieved at the low number of casualties and absence of fatalities, one must not underestimate the emotional impact of having to deal with an incident such as today's, and so right now my thoughts are very much with my colleagues at Wilts & Dorset.