ENGINEERS inspected the exact section of road where Monday’s double-decker bus crash took place just one week ago, it has emerged.

Emergency workers hailed it a “miracle” after 56 stunned Kingston Maurward College students walked away from the smash relatively unscathed.

Thirty people did suffer minor injuries but just seven students and the 27-year-old First Bus driver needed hospital treatment. The bus was en route to the Dorchester college when it careered off the road and rolled over in a field.

As specially-trained police crash investigators continue to probe the accident, Mid Dorset and North Poole MP Annette Brooke has called for a full risk assessment into the use of double-decker college buses along the route.

She told the Daily Echo: “If may be a matter of having a single-decker vehicle with seatbelts installed for this route”

As motorists slammed the state of the A350 road surface, a Dorset County Council spokesman explained: “The road condition at this point was inspected within the past week and there was nothing wrong with it.

“The carriageway at this site was not resurfaced as part of the resurfacing work further south on the A350 earlier this year.”

Students have been offered counselling in a bid to ease them back into their studies, said Kingston Maurward principal Clare Davison.

She added: “I have personally spoken to the parents and carers of the seven students who were taken to hospital and I am pleased to say they are now home and recovering from minor injuries.

“Approximately half of the students travelling on that route are back in college today and we are expecting the rest to return later this week or next week.

“We would like to say a huge thank you to the emergency services.”

Meanwhile, the bus company has confirmed onboard CCTV footage will form part of the investigation.

It has been compulsory for seatbelts to be fitted on minibuses and coaches carrying three or more children to and from school since 1997.

A Department of Transport spokesman told the Daily Echo: “The requirements specifically exclude those vehicles that are designed for urban use.”