Double-decker bus carrying students plunges into English river in 'terrifying' crash

LONDON -- A double-decker bus carrying high school students plunged into a river in southern England on Thursday, sending the driver and four teens to the hospital and leaving more than a dozen others with minor injures, officials said.

The bus was bound for Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, a school for 16- to 18-year-olds, when it went off a road in Eastleigh. The cause of the crash was being investigated by police and the bus company.

"It must have been terrifying," said Inspector Andy Tester of the Hampshire Constabulary.

All 19 passengers on board were either able to get off the bus or were rescued, police said. The bus driver and one student had serious injuries but were expected to survive.

Police said there was no indication why the bus veered off the road but one witness who said she heard a screeching sound and saw the bus crash into the river said the bus driver told her he couldn't stop.

Kelly West was working from home nearby when the blue bus splashed into the water and she rushed to the scene to help.

West told the BBC that the driver told her the brakes weren't working and the accelerator jammed and he was "doing the best he could to avoid cars as he was coming down the road."

The bus was sitting upright in water up to its axels next to a bridge. Its front windows were smashed and mud was splattered on its side. A large section of bridge railing was missing.

West said she helped some of the shaken students get off the bus and to her garden.

About 14 students were treated at the scene by paramedics, a South Central Ambulance Service spokesperson said.

Two helicopters, five ambulances and fire crews responded to the crash.

The bus company did not immediately know the circumstances of the crash, but was investigating and cooperating with police probing the incident.