ONE driver died and another was fighting for his life last night after a bus and a coach collided head-on in a North- East village.

Accident investigators were last night investigating the cause of the crash at Newfield, two miles from Chesterle-Street.

The bus driver was killed and three passengers – a 73-year-old woman, a 50-year-old woman and a 70-year-old man – were hurt. Their injuries are not thought to be life threatening.

The driver of the coach was seriously injured and had to be airlifted to hospital.

Villagers rushed to the scene and tried to help the casualties but were impeded by twisted wreckage.

Police, firefighters and ambulance personnel were involved in a major operation that also included the Great North Air Ambulance and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which landed in fields next to the crash site.

The accident happened at about 4pm in North View, a quiet residential street.

It involved a bus operated by Annfield Plain-based Classic Buses, which was carrying three passengers on its route between Newfield and Chester-le-Street, and a coach belonging to Nightingale Coaches, of Greencroft, near Stanley, which was empty apart from the driver.

William Robinson, 47, a railway worker, was one of the North View residents who went to help.

He said: “It was pretty harrowing.

It is not something I expected to see. It is not something that I wanted to see.

“We did get the door of the bus open but couldn’t get inside because of the way it was positioned.

“We could see the guy was dead. There was no pulse.

“We went on through the emergency exit at the back and everybody else was conscious.”

Mr Robinson added: “There was a guy lying under the driver and we couldn’t get to him. He was breathing and the two people on the bus were conscious.

“One was a woman lying on the floor with quite a few cuts and grazes and another was in a seat and did not have any apparent injuries.

“We couldn’t give first aid because we didn’t have anything to do it with. We couldn’t move anybody, what with the seriousness of the accident.”

One North View resident said: “I just heard a bump about four-ish.

“I phoned 999 and ran out and tried to help the people. It was an awful mess.

“We just tried to help assess who was hurt and needed help. It was only a few minutes and everybody turned up, the ambulance and the police and everything.”

Rob Purvis, 44, of Front Street, said: “I was coming down the road in the car and I saw the bus look as if it had crashed into the hedge. Then I got out and saw that another coach was involved.

“It was bad to see. There were three passengers and the driver on the bus. They looked to be in their early fifties. The door was buckled and twisted so we couldn’t get in.”

Chief Inspector Colin Williamson, the police commander for Durham and Chester-le Street, said: “At about 4pm two buses collided head-on. One of the drivers suffered fatal injuries.

“The other driver has been seriously injured and has been airlifted to Newcastle General Hospital.

“There were three other passengers on the bus with minor injuries and they have been taken to the University Hospital of North Durham, in Durham City.”

Chief Insp Williamson said all the people involved were adults, after early reports had suggested the accident may have involved one or more school buses.

He added: “It has been a tragic accident and we need to get to the bottom of what happened.”

He said the road would stay closed while investigators examined the scene and asked people to be patient.

John Robson, group manager with County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service, praised his crews, the police, ambulance and air ambulance for their joint efforts in freeing the injured.

He described the crash as a major accident and said the fronts of the two vehicles had nearly “merged”.

Mr Robson said the two drivers had to be cut free, and the coach driver had to be taken out on a stretcher through a window at the back of the vehicle.

One of the problems was to make space in the damaged vehicle in which to work.

While his men worked to cut away wreckage, the injured driver was treated by a doctor and ambulance staff.

After being lifted through the window, he was placed on a platform and lowered to the ground.

Four crews attended, from Durham and High Handenhold fire stations, along with a specialist unit.

The Great North Air Ambulance called in back-up from the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, which had been dropping off a patient at The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, following an incident in North Yorkshire.

A spokeswoman for the Great North Air Ambulance said: “We transported a 69- year-old male who was a passenger on the bus.

“He was suffering from head and chest injuries and suspected pelvic and hip injuries, and we flew him to James Cook Hospital.”

A spokesman for the North- East Ambulance Service said: “We received a 999 call at 4.02pm for a collision involving two buses on North View Road in Chester-le-Street.

“Seven ambulances and two helicopters were sent to assist.

“The most seriously injured patient was a male suffering critical head injuries, chest injuries and lower leg trauma.

“He was taken by ambulance to Newcastle General Hospital, accompanied by a doctor from the Great North Air Ambulance.

“Two patients described as walking wounded with minor injuries were taken to the University Hospital of North Durham.”

The two transport companies are based within a mile of each other.

A spokesman for Classic Coaches, of Annfield Plain, County Durham, last night confirmed that one of its single-deck vehicles, operating its usual Chester-le-Street service, had been involved in the crash.

Nightingale Coaches, based at the nearby Greencroft Industrial Estate, in Stanley, declined to comment.