Confused reverse directions for a bus driver in Thaxted left him in stuck in a pile of manure recently (January 3).
James Mizen, 50, a farmer on Cutlers Green, received a strange message when his brother told him that a Stephensons bus had driven into their muck heap.
It had to go down very narrow farm tracks with 18inch ruts to reach the pile of farm waste, and Mr Mizen had to spend an hour dragging it out of the mud with a tractor.
Mr Mizen said even the farmers don’t like going down there with a tractor because it is so difficult to get through.
He said: “I felt utter disbelief, I could not believe it.
“He should have twigged that it wasn’t road, but he just kept going, past the no-through road and the no un-authorised vehicles sign.
“It was a miracle that he got as far as he did.”
Managing director of Stephensons of Essex, Bill Hiron, said the driver had originally got directions down a narrow path to bypass a closed road, which had been correct, and was trying to come back the way he had come.
He said: “On the return journey he took what he thought was the same road in reverse but it turned out to be a track.
“Unfortunately there was nowhere to turn and it was dangerous to reverse, and the bus became stuck in mud.
“The helpful farmer assisted in removing the bus with his tractor. There was no damage to the bus other than a liberal coating of mud, and the driver was unharmed.”
There were no passengers on the bus when it happened.
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