Alton Coach Crash Update

21/08/2008

A coach which careered down an embankment killing a man and injuring 71 people has now been removed from the crash site. The coach collided with a car, crashed through a wall and ended up in a garden near the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire on Monday. The bus, from a Peterborough company, had been carrying farm migrant workers on a day trip. A 26-year-old Polish man died and two people are in a critical condition.

Investigators used specialist cranes to remove the shell of the coach from the scene in Station Road, Alton, on Tuesday. Tests are being carried out on it at a police garage to try to find out how the crash happened. The passengers, who were fruit pickers based at Lutton Farm in Oundle, Northamptonshire, included 28 people from Poland and 17 from Lithuania.

A total of seven people are still in hospital.

The 63-year-old driver, from the Peterborough area, is in a critical but not life-threatening condition in intensive care at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire after suffering "serious leg injuries". Officers said he provided a negative breath test. A 21-year-old woman from Poland was in a critical life-threatening condition at the same hospital.

Five others - two people from Poland, one from Latvia and two from Lithuania - remain in stable conditions and are being treated at various hospitals across the West Midlands. There were passengers from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and a man from South Africa on the coach. Ambulance chiefs said each of the 71 passengers on board who survived the crash were treated for some sort of injury. No-one was inside the car which the bus hit.

If you or someone you know has been affected by this accident please contact us for free claims advice by filling in our online claims form.