Hijacked bus causes 15-car domino smash

5:55pm Thursday 26th October 2006

An hysterical' passenger who attacked a bus driver before hijacking his bus in Whetstone and slamming it into 15 parked cars has been arrested.

Police said the passenger refused to leave the number 34 bus in the early hours of Thursday.

The bus driver continued on his way back to the depot. Police said that at around 1.40am, the driver got off the bus after allegedly being assaulted. The passenger then released the handbrake, causing the bus to career downhill and strike parked cars before crashing into a flashing zebra crossing beacon.

The out-of-control bus caused a domino affect of crashing cars - a parked BMW forced another parked car through a fence and into a front porch.

Totteridge resident Alex Andreou was driving home at the time and was the first person on the scene.

He said: "I saw something like a car that appeared to quickly turn into my path. I slammed on the brakes and that's when I saw a big dark object coming towards me. It had no lights on at all; it was just a big black thing. I swerved onto the pavement when I realised it was a bus travelling the wrong way.

"I thought, bloody hell, something's not right there'. I thought the bus driver was falling asleep or something.

"I left my car on the pavement with the doors open and chased the bus. It was moving pretty slowly down the road then it mounted the pavement and wrote the cars off.

"I chased it for about a hundred feet and got in to find the door had been smashed-up and there was no bus driver on board, but I thought I saw someone on it earlier. By this time car alarms were going off everywhere.

"I could hear someone screaming. He the passenger was on the pavement and had blood running down his face so I thought maybe the bus had run over him.

"I went towards him, but he lashed out at me. He was hysterical. I tried to get him to sit down but he started hitting the cars. I had to hold him there until the police arrived."

The 30-year-old passenger and the 45-year-old driver sustained minor injuries. The passenger was arrested on suspicion of aggravated taking of a vehicle and aggravated driving and has been bailed to return to Colindale police station tomorrow.