Police said five people had moderate injuries after the crash in Lower Hutt. Photo: RNZ/ Karoline Tuckey
People who ran to help injured passengers after a bus crash in Wainuiomata say some had head injuries, including a child.
Five people are reportedly hurt and about 700 homes lost power after the Wellington Metlink bus ran across a roundabout before hitting and partially knocking down a pole in Wainuiomata, a suburb of Lower Hutt.
Police said about 11.45am on Friday they were told of a single vehicle crash at the intersection of Coast Road and Hine Road. Five people people were reported to have moderate injuries.
Hazel Campbell, 17, said she came outside after hearing distressed people in the street, and saw an injured girl about 6 years old being taken off the bus, passengers climbing down and neighbours pouring out of nearby houses to help.
"I heard people crying - there was a little kid crying with a swollen face and I think a head injury, and her whole eye was swollen. And someone with a leg injury that looked a little bit broken."
Campbell said a man with facial tattoos had jumped off the bus after the crash and run away, and police officers were asking questions trying to find him. However, police told RNZ they were not looking for anyone after the crash.
The bus crushed a sign pole in the middle of a busy roundabout, before crashing into a power pole. Photo: RNZ/ Karoline Tuckey
Hazel's mum Shanna Campbell said the mother of the child from the bus also had injuries to her head, while two elderly woman - who Hazel had helped - were also injured.
"Seven or eight people were on board, and they ... were just in shock," Shanna Campbell said. "The bus driver was concerned about the people on board and was checking on them and trying to comfort them."
Neighbours had brought out chairs for the passengers, ice packs and blankets, while ambulances arrived, and the bus driver and child were taken away in ambulances.
Photo: RNZ/Reece Baker
Wellington Electricity reported just under 700 homes in the area had lost power.
A person in the area said she heard a loud bang from several blocks away and the power in her house flickered.
She said she and other locals have told her their power is out, and that they can hear lots of sirens.
It had later been restored by 2.30pm.
"We were able to restore power supply to just over 650 those customers within the first half hour of the outage by re-routing power from another part of the network," a Wellington Electricity spokesperson said.
The remaining 53 customers were on a section of the network that was unable to have power re-routed to it, the spokesperson said.
"Emergency Services needed to attend and complete their work before our crews could re-straighten the pole and then restore power to the remaining customers."
Photo: RNZ/Reece Baker
Metlink said 11 passengers were aboard the 170 route bus, which was operated by Tranzurban Hutt Valley.
"Three passengers with minor injuries were attended to by an ambulance onsite. The driver has been taken to hospital as a precaution," senior manager of operations Paul Tawharu said.
"They were assessed at the scene before being given the all clear to leave by officials."
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