Air ambulance involved in Wharf accident drama

By Simon Hayes on October 20, 2009 12:00 PM |

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London's air ambulance was called to Canary Wharf on Saturday afternoon after a woman was knocked down by a bus.

The incident occurred at Westferry Circus at around 2.40pm when the northbound bus struck the 25-year-old pedestrian, causing her head injuries.

A bike paramedic and fast response crew were first on the scene to attend to her, followed by a road ambulance.

The helicopter ambulance, based at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, arrived at around 3pm and landed on the roundabout at Westferry Circus. The helicopter is manned by a specialist trauma doctor, who treated the injured woman at the scene.

Richard Stanbrook, who lives in Millennium Harbour, saw what happened.

He said: "At about 3pm on Saturday I was driving towards the roundabout when I saw the air ambulance coming in to land on it.

"There were three or four police cars there and they kept onlookers back but I could see medical staff from the air ambulance and they spent quite a long time, about half an hour, treating her.

"She was then put into an ambulance and taken to hospital and the air ambulance left."

The injured woman was taken to Royal London Hospital by road ambulance but there has been no report on her condition.The road out of Canary Wharf, which had been closed while the air ambulance attended the scene, was reopened shortly after 3.30pm.

The air ambulance was established in 1989 and has been based at the Royal London Hospital since August 1990, since when it has flown over 20,000 missions.