Fatal Hackney bus crash was “like an explosion”

Workers attach a crashed bus to a tow truck. Photo: David Mirzoeff (Image: Archant)

The victiom, believed to be in his 20s, was one of four men in the car when it was involved in an accident with the bus in Lea Bridge Road, Lower Clapton, at around 2.20am this morning.

The wrechage of a car that crashed with a bus is put onto a tow truck Photo: David Mirzoeff (Image: Archant)

The three others in the car were also injured, one critically, while 10 people on the N38 bus were treated as “walking wounded”, Scotland Yard said.

Police seal off the scene after a bus crashed with a car. Photo: David Mirzoeff (Image: Archant)

The bus was travelling towards Whipps Cross when the accident happened in Lea Bridge Road, at the junction with Essex Wharf.

Paramedics treated bus passengers before injured were taken to hospital by another bus.

Rose Friggi, 32, a mother-of-two from nearby Paradise Park, said: “I was up in the night because my baby was sick. I heard what sounded like an explosion. My husband went to work at about 3am and he said there were police cars and a helicopter at the scene.”

A neighbour added: “It was a sudden banging, I looked out of the window and I saw a lot of bright lights, and people shouting.”

Jenny Quested, 34, said: “I heard cars going by, but then I heard a thud – it wasn’t like a normal crash where you can hear glass smashing. The bus stopped and people got out. Five minutes later the police had arrived. There were so many ambulances, and police and helicopters.”

A wrecked blue car, thought to be an Audi, still lay across the centre of the road next to traffic lights close to the Lee Valley Ice Centre. The N38, with destination of Walthamstow Central on the front, stood nearby, its right front corner crumpled and its right side angled into a verge.

A police spokesman said that one man was pronounced dead at the scene, while another man remained in a critical condition in hospital. He said the two men in the back of the car suffered injuries, and were in a serious but stable condition in hospital.

Police said that no one had been arrested.

The roads from Chatsworth Road with the junction of Lea Bridge Road to Orient Way with the junction with Lea Bridge Road were closed and motorists were advised to avoid the area. Anyone with information or who witnessed the collision is asked to call police on 101.