A bus passenger has described the terrifying moment she was jolted awake as they crashed into a lorry.
The Scottish Citylink service was travelling north from Edinburgh to Aberdeen when it collided with a lorry on the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road near Stonehaven on Wednesday.
Emergency services were called to the scene and the route was closed for more than seven hours as they battled snow blizzards and drifting snow.
Three passengers and the 56-year-old bus driver suffered minor injuries.
‘We didn’t know what was happening’
Onboard the bus was a group of four clinical psychology students returning home from a training course.
The group of friends had planned to travel by train but were forced to alter their plans due to the rail strikes.
One of the students said they were all suffering a minor concussion after hitting their heads off the seat in front due to the impact.
The 29-year-old said: “We were all just having a good sleep and the bus crashed. We felt the guy emergency brake but then it skidded and crashed.
“Everyone on the bus pretty much hit their head off the seats in front of them because it was so sudden.
“We just went into panic mode. We didn’t know what was happening for 30 minutes.
“From what I felt of the impact I didn’t know what we had hit, and if it had been a little Fiat 500, it would have been totalled so I was getting quite upset that someone might have been quite seriously hurt.”
‘We were so lucky to have each other’
Three fire crews from Stonehaven, Inverbervie and North Anderson and a special resource appliance arrived at the scene around 5.20pm.
Bus passengers were kept on the double-decker for more than six hours before finally making the journey to Aberdeen.
The woman added: “It was so windy that it was shaking the bus while we were still on it so that was quite scary.
“The crash happened at 4.45pm and we got moving again at about 11.45pm. We all got home at like 1am – that was the worst bit, the waiting.”
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