Parents were left "furious" after a school bus continued dropping kids off despite its window being smashed en route.

The Barnetts Coaches AS1 from Chipperfield to Ashlyns School in Berkhamsted was clipped by another bus, which had apparently been trying to “squeeze through” in Bovingdon High Street.

The collision on Thursday (July 6) caused the outer glass to shatter and fall out, but no glass fell into the coach and no one was hurt.

The driver then reportedly stopped around the corner, knocked out loose glass and moved children near the window away, before continuing with the school run.

A parent slammed the service for continuing with the broken window, questioning “how can they think it is acceptable to drive the bus with our children on board”. Others labelled it “absolutely disgusting” and “not acceptable at all”.

One mum said: “I was furious that they continued in the bus in that condition. There was no communication from the company that an accident had happened.

“If they had put out a statement just to inform us what had happened and that the children were ok then I'm sure a lot of parents would have felt better about the situation.”

There were, however, other locals who felt the right thing was done to avoid leaving the schoolkids “stranded”, and thought that it wasn’t the companies fault based on how children described the collision.

Watford Observer:

One parent said that although “maybe this incident was managed correctly”, they still don’t feel confident in the quality of the service and are planning to stop having their child use it in the new term.

Richard Barnett, who owns the coach company, claimed the issue had been “blown out of proportion” by parents.

He said that the driver “did the right thing” and “acted responsibly”, adding that the bus always remained safe while in use and was repaired the next day.

“The windows are designed to shatter. They are double glazed, it had only broken the outer glass,” he added.

“The vehicle was 100% roadworthy to be in the road.”

It is understood that the bus, which seats 59, was about a quarter full at the time of the crash.