A BUS driver whose actions caused three children to suffer life-changing injuries and other needing treatment has been jailed for three years.

Martin Robert Walker, of Burke Drive, Southampton, collided into the railway bridge in Wellhouse Lane, Headbourne Worthy, on September 10, last year, causing the roof to be ripped off.

Today at Winchester Crown Court he was jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

In sentencing him, Judge Angela Morris, the Recorder of Winchester, said: “Before you took charge of this vehicle you had received familiarisation training which included driving along part of the route which you were going to undertake.

“This was a new route, and it is regrettable that you did not take the opportunity to drive the route (or part of it) yourself but remained a passenger on that occasion.”

She continued: “Taking the correct route was particularly important in this case because the railway bridge at Wellhouse Lane was subject to a height restriction; in other words, a double decker bus would not safely be able to travel under it.

“You took a wrong turning on London Road when you missed the turning into Bedfield Lane and continued along the same road towards the bridge at Wellhouse Lane. A number of students appreciated your error and started shouting to alert you to the fact that the bus would not fit under the bridge.

“The consequences of your actions are captured in photographs and to an extent on the CCTV footage I have seen today. The entire roof of the bus was effectively sliced off by your actions with the result that those students on the upper deck were left with varying degrees of injury and trauma.

“It is clear that many of those young passengers were left injured, traumatised and distraught.”

The judge added: “One might have thought that a bus driver with your experience driving an unfamiliar route for the first time with a bus at close to full capacity would have exercised extra care to ensure the safety of your passengers. Sadly, you did not, and it is only by sheer good fortune no one was killed or limbs lost.”