Female driver killed in horrific crash with bus

A WOMAN has been killed in a horror road smash which sliced her car in half.

She was driving a grey Volkswagen Passat when she was involved in a collision with a bus on Lasswade Road last night.

Emergency crews raced to the scene, but despite a desperate bid by ambulance workers to save her life, the driver was pronounced dead at the scene.

Witnesses said the front half of the woman’s car ended up 15 metres away from the back end, which they said was embedded in the bus.

Two bus passengers were taken to hospital for treatment, including one who had to be taken off in a wheelchair, while the driver of the number 31 East Craigs-bound service was understood to have been suffering from shock.

A two-week-old baby and a three-year-old girl were among the other passengers on the bus when the incident occurred just after 7pm.

A spokeswoman from the fire service said hydraulic cutting equipment was used to allow paramedics access to the driver of the Volkswagen before she was removed from the vehicle.

Calum Gillies, 22, who lives near the scene of the incident, ran to see if he could help after his family heard a loud bang.

He said: “We didn’t actually see what happened, and from the house at first it looked like there were two cars on the road. It was only when I got closer I saw that the back of the car was embedded in the front of the bus, while the front of the car was about 15 metres further down the road.

“I’m first-aid trained, so I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help. Police were already on the scene and the woman in the driver’s seat of the car was being given CPR by two people so I thought it best not to get in the way.

“I spoke to another man, an off-duty nurse, who had parked his car and run down to see if he could help, but they were already doing CPR when he arrived, too.

“He said there was a lot of blood.”

Mr Gillies added: “I saw the driver of the bus, he looked extremely shaken.

“The driver’s cabin was caved in and the bus itself is way up on the grass verge. It’s a miracle it didn’t tip over.”

His mother, Yvonne, 54, said she had witnessed a number of accidents on the road, which she insisted had too high a speed limit.

She said: “This should be a 40mph zone, not a 60. There is anti-skid surfacing on the road, but people drive round these bends so quickly it already needs replaced.”

In May 2007, 18-year-old Alexander Scougall, of Gilmerton, was killed when his car overturned after colliding with a van on Lasswade Road, while two years later motorcyclist Keith Henderson, 49, from Bonnyrigg, died after a collision with a skip lorry.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: “Tragically, this collision resulted in a young woman’s death and we are currently trying to establish exactly what happened during this incident.

“Anyone with information relevant to this investigation is asked to contact police immediately.”