A York shop owner is today demanding action before shoppers are killed by vehicles mounting a curb in a busy street.

Beryl Garnett, owner of Garnetts at the corner of Micklegate and Trinity Lane, said it was only a matter of time before vehicles, whose drivers misjudged the tight turn into the lane, hit pedestrians on the pavement.

Her warning comes after a double-decker bus came across the path and scraped the shop when Micklegate was packed with weekend Christmas shoppers.The collision smashed an upstairs window in the bus and knocked wood off the building.

But Mrs Garnett said the next accident could be a lot worse.

"There were two customers in the shop at the time and the bus could so easily have come through the window," she said.

"I've complained to the council because I really do get frightened sometimes. We get all sorts turning in to Trinity Lane, including wagons which have tried to negotiate the corner, and they are always mounting the pavement."

The bus, owned by Harrogate and District, was not in service and nobody was hurt.

A police officer who attended the accident said: "The bus was being driven by an out-of-town driver who tried to make a right turn. No passengers were on the bus and it was not a major accident."

But Mrs Garnett said it was lucky that it was only a minor collision. "One day somebody is going to push right in to the shop, and it's nearly happened today," she said.

Peter Evely, head of highway regulation and safety at City of York Council, said he did not know why a bus had been travelling down Micklegate because it is not a designated bus route.

He said: "It is certainly not a bus route and there is a coach ban on it except for access which is well signed on the bar so unless the vehicle was going in there for a pick up or set down it should not have been in there any way." He said he would be looking further into this case.

A spokesman for the bus company said it was not aware of the incident and could not comment at this stage.

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