A GROUNDWORKER who was seriously injured after being hit by a bus has spoken of his trauma for the first time.

Eddie Jackson was badly hurt after he fell into the path on an oncoming number 65 bus outside Colchester bus station almost a year ago.

Mr Jackson was seriously injured and says his life has not been the same since.

He spent weeks in hospital and had 42 staples and six bolts and bars inserted into his right arm, which was crushed by the bus.

As a result, the 40-year-old, who is used to operating heavy machinery daily, lost a large amount of movement in his arm.

He said he will never be able to work in the industry again.

Mr Jackson, of Oatfield Close, Stanway, said: “Unfortunately, I now know I’m going to be disabled for life - this will stay with me for the rest of my life.

“For a man who was always up and ready to go to work any day of the week, it has been very hard to take.

“I’ve suffered with it all mentally as well as physically.”

He added: “I can remember everything right up until the bus hit me, and then nothing after at all.

“I woke up in a machine in the hospital.”

An emotional Mr Jackson added: “I my head, I can see myself tripping and falling into the road and being hit on the right of my body and I can hear my arm being crushed.

“It’s there that I black out, I presume from the shock.”

Mr Jackson now wants to get in touch with the person who called for an ambulance, who he says “might have saved my life”.

He added: “Someone must have seen it all happen because the ambulance came and took me to hospital. I would like to meet whoever it was who saw what happened to me and made sure I got the care I needed.”

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service said: “We were called just after 8.30pm on October 27, 2016, to reports of a road traffic collision on St John’s Street in Colchester.

“We dispatched an ambulance crew to the scene to help.

“A man was assessed at the scene and then taken to Colchester General Hospital for further care.”

A First Bus Essex spokesman confirmed the firm has a record of the incident but the driver was not the person who called for an ambulance.

To get in touch with Mr Johnson, call 07986 748862.