A DRIVER and two passengers escaped serious injury when a bus veered off the road and fell down a canal embankment in Stockton Heath on Thursday morning.

The Warrington Borough Transport bus slipped down an embankment of the Manchester Ship Canal just after 10am on Thursday as it attempted to manouvre around a council bin wagon on Fairfield Road.

The Dennis Dart single decker operating on the number 48 service from Dudlows Green to Warrington stopped sliding before it reached the canal.

One passenger was taken to Warrington Hospital with minor injuries, while the driver and the second passenger escaped unscathed but badly shaken.

Emergency services attended the scene, where fire crews secured the bus to stop it slipping further down the embankment. Fairfield Road was blocked off and traffic diverted around it.

The bus was retrieved from the embankment shortly afterwards.

Nigel Featham, managing director of Warrington Borough Transport, who attended the scene, said the bus and the council wagon were manouvering around each other at an almost crawling speed and that the bus had slipped extremely slowly down the embankment.

He said: "We are now conducting a full investigation. Thankfully nobody appears to have been seriously hurt.

"There were two passengers on board, one of whom was shaken but otherwise unhurt and another who suffered minor injuries but is understood to have attended hospital locally as a precaution.

"The driver, who has been with the company for more than 30 years, was also unhurt."