Orpington crash: Bus driver killed and 15 injured

31 October 2019, 23:41

One person was killed in the crash
One person was killed in the crash. Picture: PA
EJ Ward

By EJ Ward

A bus driver has died and 15 people were injured after two buses and a car collided in south-east London.

The 24-year-old driver of a car has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and drug driving.

Scotland Yard said the driver was taken to a south London hospital as a precaution before being taken to a police station where he remains in custody.

Emergency services were called to Sevenoaks Road at 10:12pm on Thursday after a car and two single-decker buses collided.

Firefighters pulled several people from buses and gave them emergency first aid. The bus driver, 60, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Images taken by social media users showed debris scattered across the street and a car and bus with their front ends damaged following the collision.

The London Ambulance Service said they sent ten ambulance crews and number of specialist units to the scene.

Two incident response officers and a Hazards Area Response Team were also sent to the crash, along with London’s Air Ambulance team by car.

LBC's Rachael Venables was at the scene on Friday morning, she said there were: "Loads of recovery vehicles, they’ve already collected up the black car. You can see crews sweeping up debris from road."

A spokesperson said: “We treated 15 patients and took them to hospital. Despite the best efforts of our medics, a person sadly died at the scene.”

Of the 15 injured police said three have "serious injuries and the remaining have minor injuries."

Scotland Yard confirmed to LBC News they have arrested a "driver of a car involved in a collision with two buses, is currently in police custody."

Images on social media from Thursday night showed two buses on the pavement with a wrecked black car on the road.

Police were seen sealing off the area around the, calling it a "serious traffic collision."

LFB assistant commissioner Graham Ellis said: "Firefighters rescued several casualties from the buses and immediately undertook first aid."