FIVE tourists had a lucky escape when their minibus was driven into an overhead barrier, while a woman pedestrian suffered only bruising after she was struck by a car as she walked her daughter across a zebra crossing.

The first of the accidents in York yesterday was at the Grimston Bar Park&Ride site, when five Portuguese visitors were left stranded after their vehicle's roof was ripped off and debris scattered over the road.

The driver, who did not wish to be named, said the sun was in her eyes so she had not noticed warning signs or the height barrier itself.

She said: "Suddenly there was a loud noise and the bus roof came off. It wasn't exactly scary, but I was pretty upset about it. The main thing is that nobody was hurt." The tourists were travelling from Hull to York in a rented minibus.

The bus was unloaded and moved to a safe space in the car park, while the tourists continued with their trip into York.

Mr Thomas said: "The barrier meets all the criteria for signage. We've made sure the warning sign is quite large and visible, and has both imperial and metric measurements on it - but things like this will always happen."

Meanwhile, a woman had a lucky escape when she was hit by a car on a zebra crossing on Crichton Avenue, near the Burton Stone Lane junction, at about 4.45pm yesterday.

She was struck by a maroon Vauxhall Astra saloon driven by a middle-aged woman, but luckily she received only bruising in the incident, while her young daughter who was with her escaped unscathed.

Updated: 10:12 Tuesday, December 06, 2005