The double-decker bus which killed an eight-year-old boy and an elderly woman was travelling at up to 60mph before it smashed into a supermarket, an eyewitness has claimed.
A taxi driver who watched the X18 Stagecoach career out of control told how it “roared past” traffic at up to three times the city centre speed limit.
An eight-year-old boy sitting on the top-deck of the double-decker bus died at the scene along with a woman in her 70s who was struck as she walked on the pavement.
“I would say it was travelling at 50mph or 60mph”
Taxi driver at crash scene
A nine-year-old girl who was sitting near the tragic boy suffered multiple injuries and remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital.
A bus crashed into a Sainsbury’s store in Coventry yesterday
The tragedy unfolded at 6pm on Saturday when the bus from Coventry to Leamington Spa, Warks., crashed into a line of parked cars.
The taxi driver who did not want to be named said he was in his cab waiting for fares when he noticed the bus in his rear mirror.
“It veered across the road and mounted the pavement and went over some grass,” he said.
“It hit a lamppost and shifted so it was pointing right at Sainsbury’s then it just went in a straight line, very fast.
“It travelled for about 100 metres and I would say it was travelling at 50mph or 60mph. I think the speed limit is 20mph. It was about a metre away from my cab door.
Picture shows the extend of damage to the bus in Coventry
“I panicked and ran and then I heard the crash. It is so terrible. I am still in shock.”
Shoppers watched in horror as the bus then careered for 100 metres (328ft) before it mounted a kerb, hit a lamppost and smashed into Sainsbury’s in Trinity Street, in Coventry city centre.
Despite desperate attempts by passersby and paramedics to save the boy, who was from Leamington Spa, Warks., he died at the scene.
The elderly woman, from Nuneaton, Warks, who was hit by the bus as she walked by the supermarket, was also pronounced dead at the scene.
Coventry University student Joe Taylor, 19, said: “We had to run and get out the way and it just kept going. It knocked over a few poles and it hit Sainsbury’s. It hit the parapet which was just level with the top level of the bus.”
Dad-of-three David Jackson, 29, was standing at a bus stop near Sainsbury’s minutes before it happened.
A 9 y/o girl also travelling on the top deck of the #Coventry bus is seriously ill in hospital.
— West Midlands Police (@WMPolice) October 3, 2015
The carpenter, from Willenhall, Coventry, said: “I don’t understand how the bus has gone in straight line along a path for 100 metres. The driver must have been asleep or had a heart attack.
“But something needs to be done about traffic safety in this road. My cousin is a nurse at the local hospital and she said it was chaos in there last night, people coming in injured and hysterical.
“They should look at how many hours he’s been working and his medical history. Something’s gone badly wrong.
“Another bus crashed into a jewellery store a few yards further up about a year ago. Something needs to be done.”