TEN pensioners were killed yesterday when a coach carrying Royal

British Legion veterans on a day trip to a brewery plunged off a

motorway and overturned. A fire brigade spokesman said two of the

victims had drowned in the 4ft of water running alongside the motorway.

The driver was among 20 others injured, one critically, in the

accident on the M4 near Bristol. Several elderly victims were in a

serious condition. The cause of the accident was unclear.

The single-decker coach apparently careered off the motorway to scrape

along 400-yards of wooden boundary fence before crashing through and

tumbling onto its roof in a water-filled culvert.Many of the passengers

were trapped upside down.

Station Officer John Dando of Avon Fire Brigade said: ''When I arrived

I saw a number of walking wounded. There were 22 people still trapped

inside, but the driver and seven others had managed to get out.

''Firefighters and paramedics who went to the vehicle initially, put

themselves at extreme personal risk. The way the coach had crashed, it

was still very unstable. There was a possibility that it would tilt,

crushing rescuers and those waiting to be rescued.''

Fire crews placed special inflatable lifting gear alongside the coach

to stabilise it while the rescue continued.

Assistant divisional officer John Waft was the first senior fire

officer on the scene. As soon as he saw the mangled wreckage he called

for five more crews, two rescue tenders and a mobile crane.

Fire crew had to wade in 4ft of oily water to attempt an entry to the

front end of the coach where people were trapped in their seats.

He said: ''It was more like a battlefield that a coach which had gone

off the motorway.''

He said that a lot of the victims had been thrown violently forward

when the coach struck the culvert.

Rescuers cut an 18-inch gap in the front of the coach and used it to

pull clear the injured and dead, he said.

''It was a miracle anyone came out alive.''

The head of Avon and Somerset police traffic department, Chief

Inspector Jeff Brommage, said: ''This is probably the worst single

vehicle accident I have attended in 33 years' service.''

More than two dozen police officers were at the scene and some would

possibily require counselling after witnessing the harrowing scenes

involving the coach party.

The police chaplain who helped the injured and counselled some

paramedics is a local vicar at Pilning. He is the police chaplain at the

Almondesbury motorway control centre which oversees the massive

interchange and motorway routes close by.

The chaplain operated close to the crash scene which had been cordoned

off by a green tarpaulin.

Firemen used ladders to bring the injured and dead from the ditch to a

green and white inflatable tent erected nearby. The tent acted as

emergency medical centre and temporary mortuary.

Mr Waft said: ''Four bodies had to be cut from their seatbelts and

were hanging upside down in the wreckage. The driver is thought to have

been thrown clear and he was able to assist firefighters by telling them

how many people were on board and where they were sitting.''

Avon and Somerset Police confirmed last night that the driver was

given a breath-test which proved negative. A spokesman said: ''This is

normal standard practice.''

Rescuers from the emergency services battled for more than three hours

to free victims trapped in the wreckage.

The tragedy immediately rekindled controversy over the safety of

coaches. Transport Secretary Brian Mawhinney called for an urgent report

into the crash.

The pensioners were all from the Legion's Christchurch branch in

Dorset, one of the largest in the country with a membership of more than

2000.

They had been on a day-trip to a Bass brewery in Cardiff and were

returning to Christchurch when the accident happened.

The nine-year-old coach was owned by Laguna Coaches of Bournemouth.

More than 100 emergency workers fought to free veterans from the

wreckage.

The former soldiers who lay injured and dying amid the twisted

wreckage of their coach maintained an ''almost deathly calm'' during the

huge rescue operation, said Station Officer Dando.

''It was sheer carnage, there is no other way of describing it.''

Some of the injured veterans had been able to scramble out of the

upturned and collapsed wreckage, covered in blood from severe cuts, but

others were trapped inside, he said.

''Despite the seriousness of some of the injuries, there was no

screaming and shouting. There was an almost deathly calm. People were

suffering from shock.

''Unfortunately we are used to dealing with major accident scenes, but

this one was horrendous for firefighters and paramedics,'' he said.

The pensioners were described as an ''extremely quiet'' group of

''reasonably elderly gentlemen'' by brewery communications manager Arwyn

Owen in Cardiff.

He said they would have had ''one or two small glasses of the beer''

before an hour-long tour of the brewery.

Afterwards they had a ploughman's lunch and sandwiches, and ''one or

two more small glasses of beer''.

He added: ''The coach drivers always have soft drinks.''

Mr Brian Gwynne, 58, who operates Laguna Travel, which has two

coaches, said: ''I was stunned when a policeman arrived at my door to

break this terrible news. Our coaches have never been involved in an

accident before. As a coach owner it's the sort of experience you hope

you will never have to go through.''

He was waiting to hear details of the accident from driver Stephen

Brown, 39, who was treated in hospital for minor injuries and later went

home.

Mr Gwynne added: ''I still know very little about what happened

because I have not been in contact with my driver.''

He said Laguna worked regularly with Legion branches around

Bournemouth.

Mr Gwynne said Mr Brown, who is married with three children, was an

experienced driver and had worked for him for nearly five years. ''I

have known the driver some time. He has been driving all his life and he

is about 38 years old.

''He is a very safe driver and he's never been involved in any

accidents.''

He added: ''The coach was approximately nine years old.It was

partially fitted with seat belts, not 100%. My understanding is that no

other vehicle was involved.''

At the Royal British Legion building in Christchurch the Union flag

hung at half mast as anxious visitors came and went, one woman leaving

in tears, while police officers stood outside.

The British Legion provided welfare staff to help cope with the

distress and cars were made available to pick up people from Bristol who

were well enough to travel.

At the Legion's London headquarters, Secretary General Lieutenant

Colonel Philip Creasy described the tragedy as ''appalling''.

He said: ''This tragedy will certainly be felt not just by the

families and friends but by the people of Christchurch as a whole and by

the Royal British Legion nationwide.''

He added ''It is an appalling tragedy especially at this time of year

just after VE Day.''

The Liberal Democrat MP for Christchurch, Ms Diana Maddock, said the

crash was a ''tragedy''.

''This is an absolutely tragic accident and our immediate sympathies

must go to all those involved and to their families.''

She added: ''Everyone will want to know how such a terrible accident

could occur.''

Mr John Skinner, general manager at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, said:

''We have been training for an emergency like this for 15 years. We have

never seen anything like it before. Staff have been called in to help

and we're putting our red alert procedure into practice.''

More than 50 paramedics, policemen and firefighters were scrambled to

the crash site. A special rescue crane was dispatched to help

firefighters to free the injured from the wreckage.

Ambulances were being escorted to and from the scene by police motor

cyclists.

Ms Ann Lloyd, chief executive of Frenchay Healthcare Trust, said: ''We

were originally told to expect 30 patients. As we are the regional

centre for neurology, plastic surgery, and burns we were expecting the

more seriously injured patients.

Two casualties were in a critical condition at Frenchay Hospital.

A hospital spokeswoman said both were female and in intensive care.

Two more victims previously in intensive care had been moved to a high

dependency ward.

Three other less seriously injured casualties were being looked after

in general wards.

The spokeswoman said the victims had suffered mainly chest and head

injuries. Some had undergone surgery.

Casualties were also taken to the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in

Gloucester, the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

Mr John Gray, spokesman for Bristol Royal Infirmary, said later that

six passengers were being detained overnight -- two with serious

injuries in the intensive care unit and four with less serious injuries

on the accident ward.

Seven other injured had gone home, including one with relatives in the

Bristol area.

One of the injured allowed home was believed to be the coach driver.

The injured men and women were aged from their 30s to over 70.

None of the patients wanted to talk to the media. ''They are all

shocked, concerned about their relatives and anxious to return to their

homes,'' he said.

Most could remember little of what happened but a woman in her 30s

could recall the bus swerving -- ''That was all she could recall''.

Extra blood was being taken to the hospitals to supply transfusions to

the injured.

Mr Tim Wallington, medical director of the National Blood Transfusion

Service in Bristol said: ''We had calls from both Frenchay and the Royal

Infirmary.

''We scrambled 100 pints of blood to the two hospitals and contacted

Birmingham, Cardiff, Oxford and Southampton in case we needed back up.''

Motorist Richard Thomas, 29, of Bristol, passed the scene just seconds

after the accident. He said: ''It was absolutley horrific. There was a

coach which had ploughed down a bank. It was upside down and its roof

had caved in.

''I had never seen anything like it in my life. I hate to think what

must have happened to the people inside.''

Station Officer Dando said he had never seen such an horrific crash in

his 15 years with the service. ''The roof is completely crushed to

within inches of the coach floor. When I first arrived it was utter

carnage -- a scene of total devastation.

''There were half a dozen people wandering around on the motorway,

bloody and dazed. I can only describe them as the walking wounded.

''I have no idea how they got out of the wreckage. They could have

climbed out or they could have been flung out in the crash. I saw a few

women among the injured but, thank God, there were no children.

''Many people suffered crush injuries and cuts from glass. Human flesh

was not designed to take the impact of metal and glass.''

The coach had been travelling along a flat, level stretch of road when

it suddenly left the road.

Friends of the victims last night spoke of their ''shock and

disbelief''. Mr Donald Nias, 41, landlord of the Royalty pub in

Christchurch, the local for veterans of the Second World War, said: ''I

had friends on that coach. All we can do is wait to hear who has died

and who has survived.

''We are very deeply shocked at the news. It is a terrible, terrible

tragedy.''

At 7pm, two and a half hours after the crash, more than 120 rescue

workers were still at the scene.

Emergency services erected an inflatable casualty unit in the slow

lane of the motorway to treat the injured.

A spokesman for Almondsbury motorway police said: ''This is the worst

coach crash in this part of the country and possibly nationally that we

have ever had to deal with.''

All fatalities were understood to have been taken to Southmead

Hospital.

Mr Joe Starling, 67, president of the Bristol City Branch of the Royal

British Legion, rushed to Frenchay Hospital ''to help -- because that is

what we do in the Legion''.

Pensioner John Pearce whose cousin's husband Tom Park was on the coach

said: ''Tom said it was absolutely horrific. He managed to crawl out of

a broken window when the coach came to a standstill upside down.

''He said he was very lucky to be alive. We are so thankful he

suffered only cuts and bruises.''

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