Footage widely shared on social media shows college students on the top deck of the Bluestar 607 – Knowle to Barton Peveril College service – moments before it ploughed through metal railings into the water.
Separate dashcam footage has captured the moment the bus crashes, starting to tilt over before it hits railings and lifts up before plunging into the Itchen.
Eyewitnesses have told the Echo the driver told them the accelerator “jammed”. Police and Bluestar are investigating.
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It’s thought the bus collided with a telegraph pole near the Nisa store in Fair Oak Road before crashing through the railings into the Itchen near Toby Carvery.
The footage, shared on Snapchat, starts with a student who said: “Oh my god… the bus has just had a major crash.”
Another student shouts “get away from the windshield” as the teenager recording the footage says: “We’re going to die, we’re actually going to die”.
Another can be heard saying “try the brakes” as the bus careers along the road.
Screams ensue as the footage shakes just seconds after a student repeats: “We’re actually going to die.”
Two air ambulances landed to deal with the injured alongside paramedics, police and firefighters
James West, who lives on Guest Road, saw the double-decker bus “rip” through railings as it crashed into the river.
“It sounded like a bomb, that’s the best description,” he told the Echo.
James said that the driver told his wife that the “accelerator had jammed”, and that he could not slow the bus down before it went into the river.
“I think he was a bit of a hero in all honesty, because he could’ve taken out cars, houses. He could’ve taken out pedestrians.
“It sounds like he’s had to do the best he can to try and minimise. If you suddenly slam the anchors on, would it tip over?”
Police have shut Bishopstoke Road with officers expecting it to remain closed for 12 hours.
The bus has been propped up with large poles to keep it in place amid the investigation and ahead of it being recovered.
Students were seen “in shock” in the aftermath of the crash with a large cordon in place preventing access to the scene.
Parents were told to head toward a hub where children were released once medically cleared by paramedics.
Scott Agass’s 17-year-old son was onboard when it crashed but is okay.
The dad said: “He said he was sitting there with a blanket and a monitor on his finger. He doesn’t really know what happened or what caused it.
“I suppose it just happened so quick. All he saw was that it crashed and gone in the river.”
Inspector Andy Tester, of Hampshire Constabulary, said a total of 20 people were onboard the bus, 19 of which were passengers.
He said: “It must have been terrifying and my thoughts are very much with what the children and the driver on the bus, who must have had a terrifying experience.”
He added that several people including the driver were trapped on board when emergency services arrived.
He said: “There were a large number of specialist resources helping to get people out of the bus.
“Some people had got themselves out of the bus, and it was obviously important to us to triage the injured people, to assess the people who were still stuck in the bus, and to make sure we had accounted for everyone.”
Reporting by Ross Marshall, Cristiano Magaglio & Reece Barrett.
