Man hit by bus on CCTV 'lucky to be alive' after medics refuse to believe collision
'I feel very lucky to be alive,' says Simon Smith. 'I'm very thankful to be here, because really I shouldn't be here.'
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Your support makes all the difference.The man who was hit by a double decker bus before calmly walking into a pub has revealed emergency workers refused to believe he had been hit.
Simon Smith, 53, said he felt “very lucky to be alive” after he was struck by the vehicle in Reading over the weekend. The collision that was captured on CCTV.
Mr Smith had just returned from the bank and was walking home when hit from behind by the bus.
As he was thrown down the pavement, he narrowly avoided being run over by the vehicle.
"I didn't tense because I didn't know it was coming. After it I just wanted to get somewhere safe,” Mr Smith told The Sun.
Standing up, he walked into the Purple Turtle pub, next to where he landed.
"It's quite funny everybody thinks I have gone for a pint," he said. "I was actually looking for a place of refuge when I went into the doorway of the pub."
After emergency responders arrived to treat him, he said they refused to believe he had been hit by the vehicle.
“Originally they were all in agreement because if I had been hit by the bus, I wouldn’t be here," he told The Sun. “I said ‘I’m sure the bus hit me’ and they kept saying ‘No you were hit by debris’.
“An officer then saw the CCTV at the pub and came back and said ‘I’m really sorry you were right’.”
Mr Smith confirmed he enjoyed a beer later that day, after he was discharged from hospital with extensive bruising and road rash.
But he said that his wife and five-year-old child often walked along the same route with him and he felt “quite traumatised” that he or his family could have been killed.
"I feel very lucky to be alive,” he added. “I'm very thankful to be here, because really I shouldn't be here.”
Police and the bus company are now investigating what caused the bus to lose control. No arrests have been made.
A spokesman for Reading Buses said: “We are obviously shocked by the incident as well as the very graphic footage that has been shared a number of times. Thankfully, the pedestrian does not have any major injuries and there were no major injuries to passengers on the bus.
“The incident is the subject of an ongoing internal investigation as well as an investigation by the police with whom we are working and sharing footage from our on-board CCTV. So it would be inappropriate for us to comment or speculate on this until it has run its course.
They added: "We send our regrets to those affected, especially the pedestrian injured in the street and hope that he is recovering from his injuries.”
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