Horror as school bus skids off icy road in shock crash during -6C weather warning amid ‘children’s lives at risk’ blast

‘A double decker school bus skidding into a verge and could easily have toppled over as well as a car over a hedge’
SCHOOL children in Co Armagh had a lucky escape after a double-decker school bus skidded off the road during a Status Yellow weather warning.

Horror images from the scene show the bus stuck in a verge on the side of an extremely icy Bannfoot Road in Derrytrasna Co Armagh this morning after temperatures dropped to a freezing -6C in the early hours.

Several schools across the island did opt to close this morning amid the very cold conditions and dangerous roads.

However, no overall mandate to shut has been issued in Northern Ireland or the Republic.

The crash is understood to have occurred as the vehicle turned on the Esky Road en route to pick up children from Lurgan, where schools remained open.

There were no children on board the bus at the time of the icy crash and no injuries were reported from the scene.

However, local politicians have blasted the incident as a near miss and issued fresh calls for all school bus routes in the area to be gritted.

SDLP Upper Bann said this morning: “There have been countless calls for the Infrastructure Minister to grit all school bus routes.

“A common sense request for a department to carry out. But time and time again requests are not taken into consideration putting children’s lives at risk.

“This latest incident happened on the Bannfoot Road, Derrytrasna. A double decker school bus skidding into a verge and could easily have toppled over as well as a car over a hedge.

“Thankfully no injuries but another example for the Department of Infrastructure to listen to the SDLP’s call of gritting all school bus routes.”

The collision this morning happened as the whole of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were under a Status Yellow low temperature and ice warning.

The Met Office issued the alert for Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry, with a fresh alert now in place until Tuesday morning.

Issuing the new alert kicking in from 5pm they warned: “Ice formation on untreated surfaces is likely to cause impacts in places on Monday evening, and overnight into Tuesday morning.”

MET EIREANN ALERT

Met Eireann have issued their own yellow alerts for the 26 counties across the Republic of Ireland.

A Status Yellow low temperature/ice warning for Leinster, Cavan, Monaghan, Munster, Galway, and Roscommon runs until 9am tomorrow morning.

Met Eireann warned: “Temperatures falling to between -1C and -3C generally.

“Sharp frost and icy stretches. Black ice too. Impacts: Treacherous travel conditions.”

And a snow and ice warning is in place for Donegal, Leitrim, Mayo and Sligo until the same time tomorrow.

Met Eireann added: “Wintry showers with sleet and some snow accumulations. Sharp frost and ice also.

“Impacts: Hazardous Travel conditions. Poor visibility.”