Mum's shock as son tells of bridge-crash bus ordeal

Twenty people were injured in the crash, which tore the roof off the bus

A mother has told how her "heart was in my mouth" when her son called to say he was onboard a double-decker bus that crashed into a bridge and left 20 people injured.

Three people were seriously hurt when the vehicle's roof was torn off as it struck the Bridgewater Canal Aqueduct on Barton Lane in Eccles, Salford, on Monday.

Jennifer O'Hagan said her 22-year-old son Sammy Hofman was left "shaken up" but was thankfully on the lower deck.

"When he rang I said please tell me you are not on that bus. He said, 'Mum, I was but I'm not hurt'. It's traumatic to think 'what if'. How lucky was it he was sitting downstairs?"

The bus driver, a man in his 50s, was arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by careless driving and has been bailed pending further inquiries.

A 19-year-old woman and two men, one aged in his 20s and another in his 40s, suffered serious injuries and remain in hospital in a stable condition.

Twelve other people were treated at the scene and five others had injuries which didn't require treatment.

The crash happened on Barton Lane in Eccles on Monday

Ms O'Hagan said: "My heart was in my mouth when Sammy called me. It was such a shock. He was really shaken up."

The mother, who lives in Eccles, said her son was on his way home from the Trafford Centre shopping precinct where he works and was due to get off at the next stop when the bus crashed.

She said the state of the bus after the crash was "unbelievable" and she was "so grateful everyone survived it".

Ms O'Hagan, who works at Trafford Park, said her son told her all the passengers were helping each other after the crash.

"He said he helped a young girl who had been upstairs get glass out of her hair," she said.

Ms O'Hagan added that she remembers a bus previously had its roof ripped off after striking the same bridge in April 2023, although fortunately nobody was injured on that occasion.