TRURO College students had a lucky escape after the coach they were travelling in collided with a Truronian bus on a tight bend near the Argal reservoir, Penryn, forcing the bus off the road.

No-one was injured in the accident on Monday at around 8.06am, but the driver of the Truronian bus said he was lucky to be alive after his single decker bus crashed down a steep wooded slope, narrowly missing a large tree, and plunging around 20 feet into a stream below The coach, which didn't leave the road, was carrying between five to 20 Truro College students from the Constantine and Mawnan Smith area.

The accident happened on the road that passes between the College and Argal reservoirs going from Lamanva to Mabe Burnthouse.

The students on board the coach, hired from Summercourt Travel by Truro Mini-bus and Primrose Coaches, were treated at the scene for shock by paramedics. Others arranged their own lifts through friends and family using their mobiles. Police say by the time they arrived on the scene some students had already left the area, and only six remained at the scene.

PC Adrian Fellows, from Helston police, said at this stage there did not appear to be any offences and both drivers' descriptions of what had happened appeared accurate.

"Two buses met at the bottom of the hill and one of them has swerved, left the road and has gone into the trees," he said. "Luckily there were no injuries, and the driver's have explained to us what has happened. At the moment it just looks like an accident."

It is not clear exactly how many students were on board the coach, with reports ranging from five to 20. A spokesman from Truro College said five of their students were taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital suffering from shock, but none were injured. A college liaison officer had been sent to the hospital to help them, and their parents had been informed. The coach had been contracted by Cornwall county council to take students to college.

The owner of Truro Minibus, Stephen Bawden, said his driver had been driving correctly for the prevailing conditions, which at the time had been wet after overnight rain.

"No one was injured at all," he said. "The vehicle was going very slowly and unfortunately it had a collision on the worst part of the road where there isn't enough room for two large vehicles to pass.

"Our driver had noted the weather conditions and was driving slowly. We have had defensive driving courses for the drivers, and we recently came through the Ministry of Transport inspection from the maintenance point of view."

Geoff Rumbles, MD of Truronian, said at this stage he could not say anything other than that the cause of the accident was being thoroughly investigated.

The bus, which was less than a year old and cost nearly £100,000 new, was on its way empty to a pick-up site when the accident happened.

Tree branches had smashed the windows all along the right hand side of the bus; miraculously the windscreen remained intact although the front of the bus was badly damaged. The driver said his brakes had locked when he braked and he had gone off the road and it was very fortunate that only he had been on board.

The front offside of the coach was badly damaged with the side window next to the driver shattered and glass all over the floor.

The driver said he was shaken up and had seen his life flash before his eyes, but he was OK.

The road was closed for over four hours while the recovery vehicle performed the difficult job of pulling the bus out of the woods.