A passing truck driver used a crowbar to wrench open the door of a minibus damaged in a crash which claimed the lives of two pensioners, an inquest heard yesterday.
HGV driver Garry Musson prised open the front door of the battered vehicle as injured people panicked inside.
Mr Musson was one of the first drivers on the scene after a coach and minibus, carrying disabled people on a day trip to Leicester market, was in collision with a Transit van.
The accident happened on the A46 at Six Hills after a police community support officers blocked one lane of the dual carriageway with a Panda car to allow a pick-up truck to recover a Porsche, which had crashed earlier that day.
The inquest, at Loughborough, was told how the coach had collided with the Transit after they moved into the outside lane.
The minibus ploughed into the back of the coach.
Dennis Riley, 81, of Halifax, and Patsy Orange, 73, of Harrogate, both passengers in the minibus, were killed.
Mr Musson, who was driving a HGV, told the hearing how he sprang into action after the crash on August 14 2007.
He said he had tried to open the jammed door with a claw hammer but failed and then opened it with a crowbar given to him by the driver of the recovery vehicle.
He said: "The door finally came open.
"I thought there was quite a lot of blood in the front of the bus but I couldn't tell where it was coming from.
"I think one of the front seat passengers had banged their head on the windscreen.
"Nobody appeared badly hurt but I remember there being sheer panic."
Volunteer Helen Wilson told how she was on the coach as it drove along in front of the minibus.
She said the vehicles were in convoy and had left the Skylark Home, in Nottingham, earlier that day for the outing. Miss Wilson, who was sitting near the back of the coach, said she was suddenly aware the coach had started to brake.
She said: "But it didn't feel like we were braking. It felt like we were aquaplaning as if there was not much resistance between the wheels and the road."
She felt the impact of the crash with the van then, about five seconds later, felt another impact at the rear of the coach.
Miss Wilson, who was not hurt, said she checked on people around her and accompanied an injured pensioner in an ambulance to Leicester Royal Infirmary.
Fellow volunteer Rochelle Lamb was travelling in the front seat of the coach.
Miss Lamb said: "I felt it was the white Transit van which caused the coach to brake.
"The van pulled out quite suddenly and quite close to the coach. I felt he was changing lanes to get out of the way of the obstruction.
"I thought the second impact from the minibus was bigger than the first."
The inquest continues.
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