SCHOOLCHILDREN had a lucky escape when their coach crashed with a truck and a car today.While one pupil was taken to Ipswich Hospital the rest of the party walked away unscathed from the dual carriageway crash.

SCHOOLCHILDREN had a lucky escape when their coach crashed with a truck and a car today.

While one pupil was taken to Ipswich Hospital the rest of the party walked away unscathed from the dual carriageway crash.

Witnesses at the scene said that a car had been sandwiched between the bus and the truck.

A female youngster who was believed to have been around 13 years old was not seriously injured.

Two other people were taken by Essex Ambulance Service to Colchester General Hospital – it is not believed that they were pupils from the school.

Traffic was brought to a standstill on the northbound carriageway as police worked to clear the pile up at around 9.40am today.

The crash happened close to the junction with the B1070 near to Holton St Mary, which is in the area of East Bergholt.

Fire and ambulance were also called to the scene and the wreckage was quickly cleared from the road.

The youngsters were secondary school pupils on a trip from the Plume School in Maldon, Essex.

Headteacher Sarah Dignasse said that the coach with 48 pupils on board was travelling along with two other coaches to take year 8 pupils on an art trip to the Sainsbury centre in Norwich.

She said: "We had one girl taken to hospital as a precaution with suspected whiplash and we are very pleased that there were no other injuries."

They had been travelling with Flagfinder coaches based in Braintree. While the other two coaches carried on with the journey the remaining school children were picked up by Cedric's coaches to be taken to Norwich.