bus careened west down Marsh Folly Road, crashing into three houses and a electric light pole.

The driver-less bus eventually came to a halt at about 1.45 p.m. when it slammed into a telephone pole next to Anslie's Interior Decorating shop.

Miraculously there were no injuries except to the 38-year-old driver of the bus, Ms Beverly Evans of Southampton. There were no passengers on board.

It is understood Ms Evans panicked and jumped out of the vehicle when its steering and brakes failed just after she left the bus stop opposite Bishop Spencer Road.

She was last night undergoing surgery to a head wound. Earlier on she received stitches to close a gash on her neck.

After Ms Evans bailed out the bus continued down the middle of Marsh Folly Road, swerving from side to side and wreaking havoc.

Its first victim was a yellow house which suffered a crack down its entire left side when it crashed into it.

The bus then flattened a road sign on the opposite side of the street, went back across the road and smashed straight into the porches of two houses, toppling the walls in front of them.

It continued down that side of the road, knocking off the tops of two stone gate posts and eventually coming to a rest 150 yards later after slamming into a Belco pole and the corner of a dark pink house.

Eyewitnesses said if the bus had not stopped then, it would have crashed into Anslie's and K C Plumbing, which both had people working inside.

Mrs. Anslie Laws said she was in the back of her shop when she heard a crash and the crush of metal.

"I rushed to the door, and on the way the lights went out,'' she said. "When I opened the door there was the bus with no driver, stuck against a pole.'' Mr. Aubrey Packwood, who lives in a light pink house, said he came home yesterday afternoon to find his porch a pile of rubble. "I was on my way home when someone called out that a bus had crashed into my house. I said `not my house'!''.

Mr. Packwood added his next door neighbours could not even get up the stairs to their porch. "My sister (who owns the house) is very upset,'' he said.

The road was closed off while firemen cleaned up gas spills and Works and Engineering crews cleaned up rubble in the street from the toppled walls and porches.

The bus was taken to Prospect Police headquarters for further examination to find out what caused Ms Evans to lose control.

WHAT A MESS! -- Pembroke resident Mr. Aubrey Packwood stands on what is left of his porch after an out-of-control public bus crashed into it while careening down Marsh Folly Road.