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.''
scene
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