A DRIVER slammed his double-decker bus into a low bridge after taking the wrong vehicle on a trip to pick up schoolchildren.

The accident happened in Galligreaves Street, Blackburn, just after 3pm leaving a trail of broken glass and debris after the roof was ripped off. Police closed the road for several hours.

Officers said that the driver -- Anthony Dennis Carter, 42, of Edmund Street, Accrington -- was shaken but not seriously hurt as he travelled to St Wilfrid's High School, Shakespeare Street.

Nobody else was on board and today the driver's boss at Pilkington's Coaches admitted the employee had been told to take the 'wrong bus' from the depot in Blackburn Road, Accrington.

And the company admitted the driver was back driving the same route today -- in a single decker bus!

The low railway bridge is 3.8 metres tall and the double decker was over four metres.

The height of the bridge was displayed on a sign that was removed by the bus when it crashed.

Inspector Stuart Bruce said: "We will be interviewing the driver at some point about his use of that route with that type of vehicle."

Ray Pilkington, partner of Pilkington's Coaches, said: "The bus is not a registered school bus but it was on its way to St Wilfrid's. The driver drives that route every day. He took the bus after the gearbox band broke on his single-decker and he was told to take the double-decker.

"We get penalised for not completing routes but he should not have been told to take that bus. I don't know what's going to happen to the driver but he is back at work driving today, the same route, this time not in a double-decker." Gareth Williams, 32, a driver for Pilkington's Coaches, was at the scene of the accident and said: "I just got a phone call and I was told to come down. The driver has picked the wrong bus up, we've only one double-decker in the company and that's on a different service."

One witness said she was the first person at the scene after she heard a loud crash from her Harrison Street home. "My sister was downstairs and shouting that it was a bus which had gone past so we both came down to see."

Four years ago a school bus with 22 St Wilfrid's pupils on board crashed into the same bridge. Ten pupils were taken to hospital with cuts, bruises and shock after the roof was ripped off.

David White, head of St Wilfrid's, said: "It brings back memories from four years ago. I think the highways people have to check whether the right signs are up."