A TEACHER told how she was showered with glass after a branch smashed through a bus window. Stunned Heather Griffiths was taken to Wrexham Maelor Hospital with glass embedded in her left eye and right cheek and bruising to her face. The 24-year-old peripatetic music teacher from Buckley was upstairs at the front of the GHA double-decker when the drama unfolded at around 4.30pm on Tuesday. The bus was packed with passengers and pupils on their way home from Ysgol Brynhyfryd, Ruthin, when the overhanging tree branch shattered the window on the B5430 at Llanarmon yn Iâl. Heather, who had just started a part-time job at a delicatessen, said: "It all happened so quickly. "I just remember a big bang and then the windscreen came in. I passed out afterwards. I was covered in blood and glass. I am lucky I did not lose the sight in my eye. "This is not the first time I have been involved in a bus accident. "I had to have 15-16 stitches following another accident in Manchester. The matter was settled out of court." Passenger Rachel Long, 16, a pupil at Ysgol Brynhyfryd, was sitting at the back of the bus. She said: "There was a branch sticking out. Every day it brushes past. It must have come at a wrong angle. The bus hit the branch and it smashed the window. The glass got in the woman's eye and an elderly man was cut. "She was in bad pain. She couldn't open her eye. She thought she had glass in her eye. She had glass which had hurt her face. "We sat her down. She thought she was going to be sick and then the ambulance came. "I phoned her mum to say she was going to hospital." The bus eventually stopped after calls from passengers. Heather praised the action of another school pupil who calmed people down and administered first aid. She has taken the case up with Mulderrigs law firm, in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Yesterday solicitor Jo Smith said Miss Griffiths could be in line for compensation. "Our initial inquiries will be with the bus company as they would have a duty of care to Miss Griffiths," she said.. " But other parties may be approached." Miss Griffiths said she was annoyed the bus company had not contacted her after her ordeal. GHA coaches, based in New Broughton, Wrexham, yesterday declined to comment. Heather teaches brass instruments to Denbighshire pupils part-time. | 
