Pair return to school ten weeks after they nearly died in crash

Friends Ben Conroy and Michael Harrison, both 12, were seriously injured after the 33-seater school bus ploughed into a group of children on their way home from English Martyrs School, Hartlepool, on July 11.

The youngsters were trapped under the wheels of the bus, leaving them with horrific injuries.

Ben suffered a broken ankle, damaged knee ligaments, a fractured pelvis, broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Michael, who has scars on his face and head, had a metal plate inserted in his skull. He also suffered a fractured pelvis.

Ben spent more than four weeks recovering in The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, while Michael was in the next room for five weeks.

Neither boy can recall the accident that could so easily have cost them their lives.

Michael said: "The last thing I can remember is going on a camping holiday the week before the accident."

Ben said he could only recall waking up in hospital.

The youngsters have returned to school part-time as they continue to recover from their ordeal.

Ben said: "I am glad to get back to school to see all my friends, but not to do lessons."

Michael said: "It is nice to see all your friends, and people are happy to see us.

"It is a bit weird when people you do not know come up and ask how you are, but it is nice."

The boys were treated at the scene by paramedics before they were airlifted to hospital by the Great North Air Ambulance.

The school raised £2,500 for the air ambulance shortly after the accident, and Ben and his father will play at a fundraising concert at the Mayfair Centre, in Seaton Carew, near Hartlepool, next month.

Brenda Harrison, the boys' head of year at English Martyrs, said: "It is absolutely fantastic to see them back.

"I think most of us probably would not have thought that they would have made such a quick recovery.

"The fact that they are back at school and making such good progress is unbelievable. It is just fantastic."