A hero ambulance worker who rescued schoolchildren from a bus which careered into a riverbank has told how she raced to triage and treat inujred kids while the vehicle sank into mud.
Jade Etheridge, 28, was out near her home in Bishopstoke, Hampshire, when she saw people ‘gathered around the railings’ overlooking the River Itchen on Thursday morning.
On approaching she saw the bus had veered off the road and come to a stop in shallow water along the river’s edge.
It was carrying 19 pupils from a local sixth form college, two of whom were severely injured while 15 more suffered minor injuries.
Mum-of-two Jade made her way down to the river, finding some of the teenagers had opened the back door of the bus.
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‘There was the bus driver, bless his heart, he was shouting for help,’ Jade said.
‘He was up to his chest in mud and I could see him laying sideways across out of the seat. There was another girl, a teenage girl, screaming.
‘I don’t know if they managed to push that off to get out, but I smacked the back of the bus and said somebody help me up.
‘I was sinking in the mud. There was a lad upstairs, shouting down they were stuck and that somebody was injured.’
A member of the public who had no training grabbed a medical kit and boarded the bus to help out.
Jade said she told those who could ‘walk and talk’ to get off the bus, checking them as they went.
‘They had bumps, bruises, bloody noises. I checked them all. There were a couple of quite nasty head injuries, a lad with probably a dislocated arm.’
Five remained, who were initially seen to by Jade before being taken to hospital.
‘When I got into the bus, it was a puddle of water, and by the time I was getting off, it was up to my shin,’ added the 28-year-old, who is a 111 Team Leader at South Central Ambulance Service.
‘It was a sinking bus, it’s not deep but it was cold, wet, muddy and we had nothing but a first aid kit to help these people’.
The bus driver is said to have blamed the crash on a vehicle fault, saying the accelerator jammed while he was driving.
Jade said she decided to speak out following ‘silly comments’ online, praising the man who helped out as well as the kids who ‘were fantastic and deserve the recognition for what they did’.
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