THESE photographs show the moments after a runaway Diamond bus reportedly careered down Balmoral Road in Wordsley before crashing into a bus stop and a garden fence.

Luckily no-one was hurt in the drama which unfolded at around midday yesterday (Thursday May 26).

Diamond Buses has yet to comment on the incident but according to residents the driver got out of the bus after the engine cut out while going up hilly Balmoral Road and shortly afterwards it started trundling down the street.

Gaynor Cartwright, who was delivering copies of the Stourbridge News at the time, said: “The bus driver said he’d tried to go up Balmoral Road and he got so far and the engine cut out so he got on the phone to his boss and told everybody to get off the bus.”

The driver was reportedly directed to the back of the bus to press a restart button but the single decker started rolling backwards down the road.

Mrs Cartwright added: “Luckily the bus driver managed to get out of the way because the bus was rolling down the hill.”

She said a nearby morning nursery normally winds up at that time of day so the area could have been busy with mums and youngsters and she added: “The driver said there’s normally a woman standing at the bus stop with a baby and a pushchair – but luckily no-one was hurt. It could have been much worse.”

The bus came to rest partly in the road and in halfway in a resident’s garden where it destroyed a fence panel.

A spokesman for Diamond Buses said the incident was being investigated but declined to comment further.