PEOPLE living on a Darlington estate fear for their children's safety after a bus skidded across a garden and crashed into a car.

The Stagecoach single-decker bus skidded just after 7am yesterday, and hit Laura West's Ford Fiesta, which was parked outside her house in Camborne Drive, on the Harrowgate Farm estate.

She said: "It was lucky that my car was in the way, because the bus could have come through my front porch.

"My lawn has been churned up and the rear right-hand-side of my Fiesta has been badly damaged.

"The bus couldn't reverse off my garden, but was eventually towed away."

Stagecoach's divisional traffic manager Richard Cranmer, said: "What happened this morning was unfortunate. Our drivers always operate according to the conditions of the road.

"I have every sympathy with the lady, but accidents do happen. The council has not adopted the roads on the estate, so they are not gritted. The service did not run for two hours after the accident because of the weather conditions."

Mrs West heard the crash while she was getting her six-year-old son ready for school.

She said: "I shudder to think what could have happened if my son had been playing in the front garden."

Mrs West, who moved to the estate 12 months ago, is considering moving out.

A neighbour, Jim Todd, said he thought the estate should be part of a major bus route because the roads were too narrow and could be treacherous in icy conditions.

He said: "I'm surprised it's taken this long for an accident like this to happen. About 60 buses a day pass by, and they are largely empty."