“I would say it was travelling at 50mph or 60mph”
Taxi driver at crash scene
An eight-year-old boy sitting on the top-deck died at the scene along with a woman in her 70s who was struck as she walked on the pavement.
A nine-year-old girl who was sitting near the tragic boy suffered multiple injuries and remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
Daham added: “I went up the stairwell and it was very cramped and there wasn’t much space. I could hear the screaming.
“An old man was trapped under the seats at the front – he offered me his leg and I pulled him out, he seemed to only have minor injuries.”
A bus crashed into a Sainsbury’s store in Coventry yesterday
After finding out there were children on board he said he “went back out to let people know there were children trapped, then I went back up to try and help.
“I could see a child’s handing reaching out from the rubble. I had to try and help – I just felt I had to do something and be responsible.”
The tragedy unfolded at 6pm on Saturday when the bus from Coventry to Leamington Spa, Warks., crashed into a line of parked cars.
Witnesseses described how the bus driver frantically honked his horn in an apparent attempt to warn people just seconds before the crash.
The dead woman’s daughter left flowers at the scene yesterday with a note which read: “To Mum. R.I.P. you did not deserve to die like this, from Trina & Family xx”
A taxi driver who did not want to be named said he was in his cab waiting for fares when he noticed the bus “roar past” in his rear mirror.
He said: “It travelled for about 100 metres and I would say it was travelling at 50mph or 60mph. I think the speed limit is 20mph. It was about a metre away from my cab door.
Picture shows the extend of damage to the bus in Coventry
“I panicked and ran and then I heard the crash. It is so terrible. I am still in shock.”
Shoppers watched in horror as the bus then careered for 100 metres (328ft) before it mounted a kerb, hit a lamppost and smashed into Sainsbury’s in Trinity Street, in Coventry city centre.
Despite desperate attempts by passersby and paramedics to save the boy, who was from Spa, Warks., he died at the scene.
The elderly woman, from Nuneaton, Warks, who was hit by the bus as she walked by the supermarket, was also pronounced dead at the scene.
Coventry University student Joe Taylor, 19, said: “We had to run and get out the way and it just kept going. It knocked over a few poles and it hit Sainsbury’s. It hit the parapet which was just level with the top level of the bus.”
Dad-of-three David Jackson, 29, was standing at a bus stop near Sainsbury’s minutes before it happened.
A 9 y/o girl also travelling on the top deck of the #Coventry bus is seriously ill in hospital.
— West Midlands Police (@WMPolice)
October 3, 2015
The carpenter, from Willenhall, Coventry, said: “I don’t understand how the bus has gone in straight line along a path for 100 metres. The driver must have been asleep or had a heart attack.
“But something needs to be done about traffic safety in this road. My cousin is a nurse at the local hospital and she said it was chaos in there last night, people coming in injured and hysterical.
“They should look at how many hours he’s been working and his medical history. Something’s gone badly wrong.
“Another bus crashed into a jewellery store a few yards further up about a year ago. Something needs to be done.”
Desperate attempts by passers-by and paramedics were launched to save the boy, who was from Leamington Spa, Warks., before he died at the scene.
The elderly woman was from Nuneaton, Warks, police confirmed.
Dad-of-three David Jackson, 29, was standing at a bus stop near Sainsbury’s moments earlier.
The carpenter, from Willenhall, Coventry, said: “I don’t understand how the bus has gone in straight line along a path for 100 metres. The driver must have been asleep or had a heart attack.”
Shocking footage of the aftermath of the crash shows desperate passersby trying to rescue the boy from the top-deck.
One woman screams: “There’s a boy pushing through the seat.”
Picture added: Bus crash in Coventry https://t.co/Oodb68o2l8 pic.twitter.com/47htxQOVKm
— WMAS (@OFFICIALWMAS)
October 3, 2015
A police van parked outside the Sainsbury’s store in Trinity Street, Coventry today which has been partially boarded up
The nine-year-old girl passenger was rushed to Birmingham Children’s Hospital suffering from injuries to her face, head, right leg, chest and pelvis. She remains in a critical but stable condition.
Five other people were taken to University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire for treatment, including the driver who was saved when shoppers dragged him out of the shattered windscreen.
A ninth person was treated at the scene by paramedics but did not require hospital treatment.
