WHEN looking at photographs, it’s not necessarily just the principle object – in this case the No.58 bus – that gives clues as to what has happened, says Dave Cross, the outgoing curator of Birmingham Police Museum.

Without any exact dates or any written details about this bus crash, Mr Cross, a former policeman, closely examined a series of photos recently unearthed at the museum just behind Sparkbrook Police Station.

After piecing together the visual evidence, he said: “The road is Deritend in Birmingham at the junction of Alison Street, right outside Digbeth Police Station, and it’s around 1958. “As can be seen in the photograph, the road is quiet and the foreground of the picture shows a quantity of diesel oil on the floor. Local knowledge tells us that outside Digbeth Police Station there was a set of traffic lights and that the approach to it was downhill.

“The bus driver applied the brakes on a wet road surface, no doubt with the intention of avoiding smashing on to cars stationary at the traffic lights. Realising his bus was skidding, he moved his wheels to the left in a vain attempt to enter Alison Street and the bus fell on its side.