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Crash at Rottingdean in 1963

The collision mentioned in the Conway Street entry on this site was between a runaway crane and a cream convertible open-top doubledecker of the Brighton Hove and District Omnibus Company. This was OPN 801, the first of the initial batch of Bristol Lodekkas delivered in 1959, and took place in about 1965. There were no serious injuries (there were no passengers), and the bus, despite its mangled appearance, was repaired by Eastern Coachworks of Lowestoft and returned to service in Brighton for the next few years before sale to Hants and Dorset.

The damaged bus photographed outside the White Horse Hotel in Rottingdean.
Photo courtesy of The Evening Argus

Comments about this page

  • Martin, am I right in believing that ECW fitted a new body to no.1 but it retained it’s original number?

    By Alan J Piatt (03/03/2009)
  • Anyone know how the collision with the crane happened? I have some memory of ‘The Argus’ reporting on an enquiry into the crash which concluded that it could never happen again. So presumably some unusual combination of circumstances?

    By Bish Bosh (21/03/2009)
  • There must have been two crashes at Rottindean (check your dates) for my late brother Peter Silsby, a conductor then in the early 1960s had such an accident. He was thrown off the back with the impact and landed in a shop front (ouch). In actual fact, there were three of us brothers: Tony and Peter who were out of Hale Street, Hove (?) then myself out at Whitehawk. I did two stints 1960 to 1963 then 1966 to 1967 on the number 1 route. My shift mate was Les Swayne who lived at Lintott Ave, Whitehawk. Great memories.

    By Allan Silsby (25/05/2009)
  • Yes, there was only one such accident at Rottingdean and would have been 1964/ 1965. Brother Peter (conductor) was involved. Sorry about the last interpretation.

    By Allan Kenneth Silsby (25/05/2009)
  • The actual date of the crash (once again how did this ever happen?) was November 21st 1963.

    By Bish Bosh (10/06/2009)
  • It seems I got the street wrong for the Hove depot, of course it was Conway Street. Another correction is that my Brother Peter was also a driver. I would be interested to learn the facts of the said crash.

    By Allan Kenneth Silsby (11/06/2009)
  • If the actual date of the crash was 21st November 1963, then the heading of this page should reflect that. The year 1959 refers only to the year the bus in question was delivered. 
    [Editor: Many thanks for pointing this out to us – we have now amended the page title as you suggest.]

    By Douglas d'Enno (06/01/2014)

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