A teenager has told of her near-death experience after almost being speared by a metal rod during a horror bus crash.

Ellie Joels was upstairs on the front seat of the double-decker when the jagged strut smashed through the windscreen and pierced the chair she was sitting on, missing her neck by inches.

Reclining while listening to music, the 17-year-old suddenly felt glass thrown over her as the mangled shaft shot across her body.

The multi-vehicle horror-crash happened as her Stagecoach bus travelled along Sturry Road, from Canterbury towards Herne Bay, yesterday afternoon.

Ellie says paramedics told her she was just inches away from the metal rod – which is thought to have broken off another vehicle - impaling her neck during the terrifying collision.

The road was closed in both directions near McDonald’s while emergency services attended the accident, which is understood to have also involved a car, a van and a Currys delivery vehicle.

Today, chilling photographs have emerged showing how close Ellie came to suffering serious injuries.

The Canterbury resident explained: “I was looking down on my phone and I had headphones on with my music all the way up so I wasn’t aware of my surroundings.

“The next thing I knew I had glass thrown across my face and a pole fell across me.

“I was sitting at a diagonal angle so that’s why it landed that way.

“If I had been sitting properly it would have gone onto me, so it was a great deal of luck.”

Some passengers were visibly distressed and others rushed to Ellie’s aid, fearing the worst.

Ellie, who was on her way to visit a friend, described her shock and how one passenger handed her a jumper as her t-shirt had been ripped.

She described hearing a lot of “screaming and panic”, while some people onboard feared she had been impaled.

“Someone was throwing up in shock,” she added.

“But everyone around me was calm for my sake and I even managed to make a few friends out of the situation.”

Pictures taken by Ellie show a metal strut which had travelled directly through the chair she had been sitting on.

But she managed to escape the ordeal with bruising and cuts, along with a leg injury.

“The paramedics told me that if I had been sat three inches to the left, the pole would have impaled my neck,” she said.

“It was already traumatising but then to find out if I had slightly shifted in my seat that I could’ve come out of it a lot worse, or not even come out of it, I felt a lot of relief and luck.

“I never sit at the front of the bus because it’s never empty. I get the bus often, but I’m always at the back.

“I guess I felt lucky to be alive, and out of the three people injured I came out of it the least injured. I haven’t broken a single bone.”

It is not clear where the metal strut came from, but it has been suggested it was part of a van the bus collided with.

Ellie was meant to start a new job on Monday, but contacted them to push her start date back as she recovers from the crash.

Multiple emergency service vehicles were called to the scene, including an air ambulance.

A police spokesperson said: “Officers, Kent Fire and Rescue Service and South East Coast Ambulance Service attended the scene where three people were treated for injuries that are not described as life-threatening.

“They have been taken to hospital for further medical attention.”

A spokesperson for Stagecoach said: "Our thoughts are for the wellbeing of the young passenger who was injured while travelling on the upper deck of the bus when the accident occurred.

"Our bus driver was also taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries and is now recovering at home.

"We understand that the accident involved three other vehicles and that a van driver was also taken to hospital as a precaution.

"Safety is our first priority and we are assisting the police with their investigation into what happened."