A TRAINEE nurse is among the ambulance crew who have been praised for their actions during a rescue operation which left 22 people injured after a bus crash.

Two children were seriously injured after a minibus swerved off the road and crashed into youngsters as they were leaving school in July.

The accident happened outside the English Martyrs School, in Hartlepool, at about 3.30pm - as dozens of children were heading home for the day.

The Mercedes bus, carrying 20 children from the school, collided with a Renault Scenic, mounted the footpath in Catcote Road, and crashed into a wire fence, leaving its nose embedded in a tree.

The first ambulance crews set up a triage centre at the school and Claire Hodgson, a student nurse from the University of Teesside ,was one of the first on the scene. When she arrived she was greeted with a scene of chaos

The 34-year-old said: "I was really impressed by the way staff got straight to work and started to take control of the situation. I had only just volunteered to go with the paramedic crews as part of my nursing training and I was straight in at the deep end.

"If, God forbid, my children were in a similar situation, I would have been extremely impressed with the speedy reactions to getting the most seriously injured flown to hospital."

Assistant operations manager Dave Owen, who was in charge at the scene, said: "She did exceptionally well and helped crews set up the triage centre."

Operations manager Elaine Bennington said: "I think it is important to thank all of our staff and the other emergency services who attended on the day. Although I regularly meet with staff out and about, I thought it was important to get all staff together and formally say thank you.

"Our staff worked extremely hard to assess, treat and transfer the patients to hospital, using their training to ensure that the most seriously hurt were seen first. Meanwhile, staff in our control room ensured that ambulance cover in the surrounding areas was not compromised during the time of this incident."

Inquiries into the accident are continuing;