This is the moment an elderly widow literally came face to face with a runaway BUS after it crashed into her garden and stopped just inches from her head – and she didn’t hear a thing.
Lucky Lily Mulkeen, 85, was sat in her favourite chair eating porridge when the ten ton vehicle careered off the road into her property.
The Number 23 service demolished her hedge, flattened her garden and stopped just two inches from the wall of her two bed semi in Torquay, Devon.
It came to rest just outside her window where Lily, who is housebound with arthritis, was sat inside watching television and having breakfast.
Incredibly despite the carnage outside she didn’t hear a thing and when her terrified carer flung open the curtains Lily was almost nose to bumper.
But despite her narrow brush with death Lily simply shrugged her shoulders – and finished her bowl of porridge.
Speaking yesterday Lily said she had been unaware of the bus until her carer Tracy Cook came running out of the kitchen.
Lily said: “Tracy told me that a bus had crashed into the garden. I told her not to be so daft because I didn’t see anything. I didn’t even pull the blinds back to see.
“When Tracy took a look I was quite shocked. I was a bit shaken. But I finished my breakfast.”
Tracy, who lives nearby in Torquay, said she immediately rang 999 after checking the driver was all right.
She said: “I heard this sound like a rumbling noise before seeing the bus come thorough the edge and stop two inches from the wall.
”’Lily was sitting down eating her porridge watching TV. She stayed there and finished her breakfast.
”I rang for an ambulance and asked the driver, who was also on the phone, if he was OK. He gestured that he was.”
Eyewitnesses say the driver had just cleared passengers from bus and had stepped onto the pavement when it started to roll towards Lily’s home.
He managed to ”leg it” and leapt back on board but it almost struck a young woman in a black dress and missed several parked cars.
Local resident Eddie Harvey said: “The bus was still ticking over and the driver was outside when it started to move off.
Police, paramedics and firefighters attended the incident on Friday and a recovery vehicle removed the bus from its resting point just before midday.
A Stagecoach spokesman said it had launched a ”thorough investigation”.
He said: “We are treating this incident very seriously and have instigated a thorough investigation of what happened. Thankfully no passengers were aboard the vehicle at the time and the driver is unharmed.
“We can offer no further comment at this time as we must wait until the investigation has been completed.
“However, we would like to assure Mrs Mulkeen that we will do everything possible to help her restore her garden to its former glory and we will therefore be in touch in due course.”
