Bus Crash Opposite Hospital
42 hurt: Nurses run out to give aid
By Beverley Walker
On 7th November 1961 a bus crashed outside St. Helier Hospital.
The St. Helier Hospital treated 42 casualties, eight of them members of their own staff, when two double deck buses collided head-on outside the hospital entrance in Wrythe Lane today.
One bus swerved to avoid a car pulling out from the kerb" said a police spokesman. After the crash nurses and hospital porters hurried across the forecourt with stretcher-trolleys.
Splintering glass caused many injuries. Passengers not seriously hurt walked into the casualty department. Only two injured were detained - Mrs Doris Cumber aged 55, of Blanchland Road, Morden, an assistant in the hospital dispensing department (head and back injuries) and Mrs Audrey Courtman, aged 40, of Lavender Vale, Wallington (lacerations to face and back injury.
An official of the hospital said: We have a major accident scheme, but we did not bring it into operation because the accident was just outside the hospital. We were able to deal with all casualties in the casualty department, with the assistance of extra casualty doctors and nursing staff.*