A trail of devastation has rocked a Cheam road after an out of control bus came flying through three gardens and damaged five cars.

According to residents the driver of the 93 bus said his brakes had failed as he was driving down Church Hill Road at about 7.40am this morning.

Police cordoned off the road where three cars had been totalled by the Go Ahead operated bus before it tore through three front gardens.

Kenneth Hillman, a resident who saw the crash, said: "It sounded like a bomb had gone off. There were about three or four loud explosion-like sounds as I was sat in my chair.

"I got outside and saw a man who had hurt his leg another who banged their head.

"The bus hit the Golf and turned it completely around and took out the lamppost.

"It crashed into another car and pushed it through into the other garden where it hit two more that were parked.

"The driver was going towards the houses but managed to swerve away in time."

Chunks of metal and debris were strewn across the road and a lamppost had been ripped out from the pavement and left several metres away from where the bus had smashed into it.

Resident Chris Bush said he was concerned about drivers using the road and that some buses had been seen speeding down the road on previous occasions.


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He said: "They cane it down here. It's a not strange coincidence that when buses come down too fast on a rain sodden road that something like this would happen.

"There used to be speed bumps on the road, but they would still come down fast. But this road has been relaid and the bumps have been taken out.

"It's a combination of these things that meant something like this was going to happen."

Upwards of 12 police officers and one ambulance attended, but no serious injuries were reported.

Tony Akers, TfL’s head of bus operations, said: "At 7am today a route 93 double deck bus was involved in a collision with two cars and two trees at the junction of Church Hill Road and Hayes Crescent in Sutton

"There will be a full investigation into the accident."

Did you see what happened? Call the newsdesk on 020 8722 6326.