Two trapped in bus drama

Two pensioners had to be rescued after they became trapped under a coach on Blackpool Promenade.

Shocked onlookers told how they watched as the man and woman – both in their 70s and walking along Princess Parade, near the Grand Metropole Hotel – were struck by the coach which had been dropping off holidaymakers.

Witnesses banged on the windows of the coach to alert the driver.

Miraculously, after a 25-minute rescue, the couple were freed by firefighters and escaped with minor injuries.

The incident happened at around 1.10pm yesterday close to the Grand Metropole.

Passengers on the National Holidays coach, which onlookers said was reversing slowly, said they were unaware of anything untoward until people dashed to the bus and banged on its windows to get the driver to stop.

The couple, who are believed to have just got off the coach, were left trapped under the back of the vehicle.

Chris Spring, 68, from Kirkham, was cycling along the Promenade when he saw the drama unfold.

He said: “The coach was backing up very slowly, but there were two elderly people walking along with trolleys and the coach just kept coming.

“I shouted and a car stopped and sounded its horn but the bus kept going and the pair went under the back.

“I was stunned. It just happened in an instant.

“They were quite a bit under it and trapped.

“It didn’t look good. They were clear of the wheels but they couldn’t move and they were elderly.

“I was the first over to talk to them, they were in shock so I just tried to calm them.”

Fire crews from Lancashire Fire and Rescue’s Forest Gate Fire Station and the urban rescue team worked at the scene, using hydraulic equipment to lift the vehicle up before removing the pair.

​Both t​he man ​and the woman were taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital​ by ambulance​.

Despite their ordeal, both suffered only minor injuries.

Mr Spring added: “They were lying on their fronts and there was a bit of blood around the man but they weren’t panicking.

“The man didn’t say a word but the lady just said ‘help me’.”

Despite the pair both being trapped under the coach, which weighs up to 19 tonnes, one passenger told how they neither heard nor felt the impact of the collision, and knew nothing of it until
 people rushed and banged on the coaches windows for it to stop.

The passenger, who asked not to be named, said: “We didn’t hear or feel anything until someone knocked on the bus and said there’s people
 under the bus.

“We got off and they (the couple) were just lying under the bus.”

Passersby said emergency vehicles filled the seafront as crews worked to rescue the pair.

Dog walker Andrea Mortimore, visiting from Preston, said: “We were walking on the front when the air ambulance landed.

“Emergency crews were working to get the people out from under the coach, it must have backed over them. We could see the man lying on his front, he was talking. We just hoped he was OK.”

A spokesman for the North West Ambulance Service said: “We were called at 1.10pm to the Grand Metropole Hotel, Blackpool, to an incident involving a bus and two people.”

​A spokesman for the North West Air Ambulance said: “We were called to a trauma in Blackpool involving two people in their 70s. They were taken to hospital by land ambulance.”​

A spokesman for Lancashire Police said: “Two people, a man and a woman in their 70s, were trapped under a bus outside the hotel.

“Both were released and suffered minor injuries. No arrests have been made at this stage.”

A National Holidays spokesman said: “We are aware of the incident outside of the Metropole Hotel and are working with the emergency services to determine exactly what happened.

“We are currently unable to comment further regarding this but our thoughts are with the two people taken to hospital.”