TWO drivers and a bus load of passengers had a miracle escape after a crash involving two coaches left debris scattered across a motorway amid the twisted metal of the stricken vehicles.

TWO drivers and a bus load of passengers had a miracle escape after a horrific crash involving two coaches left debris scattered across a motorway amid the twisted metal of the stricken vehicles.

The collision happened shortly before 5pm yesterday on the A11 close to Barton Mills, near Mildenhall, and involved an empty bus and another packed with passengers.

Three people were thought to be hurt and just one suffered serious injuries.

The male driver of a coach owned by Canterbury-based Lehane Travel Ltd, which was full at the time, was taken to the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds with a serious knee injury.

He was said to be in a comfortable condition in hospital last night.

At least two of his passengers were treated for minor cuts by paramedics at the scene after being hit by flying glass, police said.

The other coach, belonging to West Row Coaches Services, in Bury St Edmunds, was empty except for the driver, who was uninjured in the crash.

Emergency workers said it was a miracle nobody had died in the accident.

Seats were ripped out from the coach floor in the impact and the rear of one of the buses and the front of the other was left totally exposed, with debris scattered across the road.

Dean Taylor-Balls, director of West Row Coaches Services, said: “The scene looks much worse. You would have thought someone would have been killed.

“My father was driving. He was ok apart from being shaken up. We are very pleased no one is badly hurt which is the main thing.

“They looked ok on the other coach.”

The road was closed for three hours while paramedics tended to the passengers and a recovery vehicle was able to move both vehicles. It reopened at 8pm.

The passengers are thought to have been picked up by another coach after their ordeal and driven to a service station in the area.

A spokeswoman for Lehane Travel Ltd said last night she had spoken to the coach driver in hospital.

“He is comfortable and waiting to see the doctor,” she said.

“I understand two people have minor cuts. Our first concern is that the passengers are all fine and our driver is comfortable. That's our main concern.”

A spokesman for Suffolk police said: “One of the drivers has a serious knee injury. One of the passengers has a pelvic injury.

“There were minor injuries to other passengers through flying glass. One of the coaches was full and one was empty.”