"The middle of the bendy bus did its job, the driver was doing his job, seemed to me the access at the depot didn't factor in the drop on the back of the bus."
A bendy bus carrying 15 people had come to a halt on a railroad crossing in the town of Melle at about 8:30 am (0630 GMT) and its rear was hit by a goods train, the police spokesman said.
George Edgar was behind the wheel of a single decker on his way to pick up schoolchildren to take them swimming but was distracted by an articulated "bendy bus" joining the opposite lane at a junction.
At just after midnight the last bendy bus in the capital set off on its last journey after Boris Johnson called them "cumbersome machines" which were too big and encouraged fare-dodgers.
"I fear that if the Labour Party ever enthusiastically unites behind Ed Miliband it will only be to push him under a bendy bus" - Best-selling author Tony Parsons.