A headteacher says he fearsfor his pupils every time they travel to school along a notorious stretch of the A47, where nine of them were caught up in a collision.

A headteacher yesterday said he feared for his pupils every time they travelled to school along a notorious stretch of the A47, where nine of them were caught up in a collision.

The Acle High School pupils were being taken home on Monday afternoon when their coach collided with another school bus and a van on the A47 at North Burlingham, near Norwich.

One of the coach drivers needed to be cut from the wreckage and taken to hospital with serious leg injuries, while the pupils were treated by air ambulance for shock and minor injuries.

The so-called White House junction with the B1140 is a notorious accident blackspot and was the scene of another crash involving Acle High School pupils in February 2002.

On that occasion 40 pupils were on board a coach when it collided with a car at 8.45am. One pupil suffered minor cuts and the car driver received whiplash.

And in July 2004 30 children from Acle High School escaped unhurt after their bus was involved in a minor collision with a lorry just off the A47 near Moulton St Mary.

Yesterday, headteacher Gerard Batty said that he would be renewing calls for urgent work to take place to improve the single-carriageway stretch of road, which spans from Blofield to North Burlingham.

“We get particularly worried about these huge sugarbeet lorries tearing down that stretch of road heading to and from the plant at Cantley,” he said.

“That junction is notorious and we get very concerned about our kids getting on buses which travel down that stretch.

“We have put pressure on the authorities before to improve the stretch of road and this will reignite our calls for work to be done before a worse crash occurs.”

Last night a spokeswoman for the East of England Regional Assembly said it had bid for £28m from the government to dual the two-mile stretch, and were expecting to hear imminently whether that had been successful.

More details emerged yesterday of how the school reacted to the collision, after criticism was made that officials did not alert parents of affected pupils.

Mr Batty said that initial inquiries to the coach company and police suggested there were no children on board at the time of the accident - that information only changed 1½ hours later when police said nine pupils were on board but they were all now home safely.

Sarah Horvath, mother of 16-year-old Jonathan, described yesterday how her son had helped the other pupils off the bus, shielding their eyes from the driver's injuries.

“He was the oldest on the bus and helped the other children off as they began to panic,” she said. “He was trying to hide the driver from them. He saw the driver's face and heard the screaming and wanted to protect the younger children from having to see it.

“I nearly lost my ex-husband nine years ago on the Acle Straight. This happening on another part of the road brings it all home again. That road is a complete death trap and something needs to be done.”