Some of you may know, some of you may not. But I know its an interesting subject and some of you may like to read about it. I don't know anyone else who has been involved in a bus crash and I'm sure that's the same for a lot of you! So here we go.
If you're squeamish, it's possibly not a good idea for you to read this!
NOTE; for all Americans, a 'lorry' is a 'truck'!
Here we go
DAY 1. The crash.
No one ever knows that they're going to be involved in something as horrific as a bus crash. My boyfriend and I had been at a Taking Back Sunday show in Oxford, drinking, dancing and having an awsome time. Standing in the long ass queue for the cloak room I took a sweaty post-mosh selfie, not knowing that would be the last picture I ever took of my face without the scars I'll be left with.
So we make our way to the train station to discover the 00.05 service to Didcot had been replaced with a coach service. No one likes replacement bus services and now I hate them even more! After hanging around in the train station for the best part of an hour, we make our way onto the coach. Usually these late night services are mostly deserted, but due to the gig it was packed full.
We set off into the night, beginning the long journey back home. We'd only been on the road for about 20 minutes when the bus slowly coasts to a stop. People are groaning, some making jokes and some calling work to let them know they probably won't get home tonight. After a few minutes of hearing nothing, I make my way to the front of the bus to ask the driver what's going on. "I have a train to catch from Didcot in 10 minutes, we're not going to make it are we?". The driver shakes his head. I still had no idea that none of us would be making it to Didcot at all that night.
I turn around to make my way back to my seat and announce to the coach that we're broken down. People decide that its time for a cigarette break and begin to make their way off the bus. I sit down next to my boyfriend and gaze out the window into the dark. The lights on the bus go out, an electrical fault. We're totally invisible to anyone else on the road. Less than a minute later, the loudest bang I've ever heard comes from behind me. And all time slows down.
The bus jolts forward with more force than any roller coaster, any ride I've ever been on. I'm convinced I'm dreaming, there's no way this would ever happen. This is what you hear on the news, this would never happen to me.
Glass. All I see is shattered glass coming towards me. My face feels like its on fire. Out of the corner of my eye I see blood splattered on the window of the fire exit besides me. It could be mine, it could be anyones. I realise that we're spinning and the bus begins to tilt as we slide down the embankment. I push against the chair in front of me to brace myself as hard as I can. Literally hanging on for my life. My boyfriend beside me and the guy from the row opposite land on me as we come to a stop, our coach wedged against the side of the lorry. People are screaming. I'm chewing on glass. My face feels cold and wet and I know I'm drenched in blood, my back is in agony where my seat had crumpled and slammed into my back. I'm convinced my nose is broken, my teeth are gone and my left hip is shattered.
I call out for my boyfriend, please oh please let him be alive. He calls back and relief washes over me. There's no procedure for what happens next, no body ever tells you what to do in a situation like this. All we knew was to get the fuck out in case the bus burst into flames.
I struggle to climb out the broken window next to the row of seats in front of me. I was sat next to the fire exit, which of course wouldn't bloody open. The smell of petrol is overwhelming. Shattered glass and twisted metal litter the ground and the bus hangs precariously over the injured below. The back right corner of the bus is, for lack of a better word, gone.
There is a boy trapped in the row behind me, his friend is breaking the seat to free him and some boys lift him out to safety. His eyes are wide and his breathing is erratic. We know he's seriously hurt. I glance over at the lorry to see the damage and I'm convinced the lorry driver is dead. I bark out to keep the injured boy warm and not to let him go unconscious. Thankfully there are other people around me trained in first aid as at this point I've dropped to the ground, the pain in my back is too much to keep moving around.
There's a girls voice screaming for help further down the embankment, but its too dark to see. From what I can hear, a girl had been flung from the bus during the crash and was lying in the ditch. People are covered in blood, limping and looking around. No one knows what to do with themselves. How would we know?
My boyfriend and I sat next to a fire engine after the emergency services arrived.
I'm still spitting tiny pieces of glass from my mouth when the Police, Fire Brigade and Paramedics arrive. They are fantastic and quickly take control of the situation. We're all ushered out from the triangle we're trapped in between the bus wreck and lorry trailer. There's glass in my shoes, down my back and all over my face. We're all taken to the local police station to be looked after, and three people are taken via ambulance to the local hospital for treatment. I'm pleased to say that all three are recovering and the lorry driver is fine.
We spend 3 hours waiting in Accident and Emergency to be cleaned up, have our injuries written up and finally discharged. Everything hurts. My face is cut to shit. But I'm alive and so incredibly thankful.
DAY 2
I say day two, its actually still the same date. I've lived almost an extra day within the 24 hours that the crash occurred. The rail company provide a taxi home for my boyfriend and myself. We limp up the stairs to our tiny apartment and carefully lay down in bed. The pain is constant and sharp, like nothing I've felt before. I clean up my face in a mirror for the first time and look at the damage. Hundreds of tiny cuts cover every inch of my face and my left eye is bruised. One cut on my nose is pretty deep and is probably going to leave a scar. Not ideal in my job!
I hit the internet to see what the news coverage is. Every large news channel in the UK has covered the story. People who were also on the bus begin tweeting me so we can check up on each other. I'm very happy to say that the boy who was pulled from the wreckage behind me has had surgery on his leg and is recovering in hospital.
I'm contacted by BBC Radio Oxford and agree to an interview on their breakfast show the next day. I'm also contacted by the Oxford Mail news paper and give an interview over the phone. I'm happy that I have a chance to tell my story and I hope that people know if they are ever broken down on the side of the road in a traffic lane then please GET OUT and get as far from the road as possible.
DAY 3
I'm very sore. Every muscle hurts. Breathing hurts. Laughing hurts. Sneezing hurts. Walking is incredibly difficult as is my favourite activity - lounging! But I'm alive and so is everyone else. I'm so, so thankful for this. Eventually, I will heal. It could take months, but I'll get there. But I'll never forget. Its burned into my memory. The blood splattering on the window, the glass coming in slow motion towards my face. The fear that my most loved one is dead.
But I'll also remember, looking back now, how everyone suddenly became a team. It didn't matter that we didn't know each other, we all worked together to help the injured and ensure that everyone was out alive. Standing on the cold tarmac of the road, looking back at the mangled metal that used to be a coach and a lorry being so thankful to be alive.
It was an experience that I'll never forget. Its made me value life in an entirely different way. You can read this and take in everything that I've said, but there is no way for you to imagine what its like unless you've been in an accident similar to this.
So hold your loved ones tight, live every day like it's your last. Because it really, genuinely could be.
PICTURES
Here are some pictures of the wreck that I've pulled off various news sites. I was sat next to the fire exit on the right hand side, you can see clearly in the pictures I was literally feet away from being crushed like the poor boy behind me. I am so lucky.
The door you see here on the side of the bus is where I was sat.
