Jordan coach crash

Tragically the recent coach crash in Jordan has claimed the lives of nine British tourists and injured many more. Clive Garner, Head of Irwin Mitchell's International Travel Litigation Group said today, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragedy and their families at this very difficult time.

"Over the last eight years I have acted for those injured and the families of those killed in nine separate coach crashes across four different continents. The one common theme in all of these incidents is that innocent passengers and their families have had their lives changed forever in tragic circumstances which could and should have been avoided."

For many years Irwin Mitchell have been calling for increased safety standards in relation to foreign coach travel to minimise the risk of death and serious injury for passengers travelling overseas. Recent events tragically illustrate that more needs to be done to safeguard coach passengers in the future.

Whilst it is too early to determine conclusively the cause of the accident it appears that the coach in which the tourists were travelling suffered a tyre failure. Tyre failures or blow outs are frequently caused by defects in a vehicle's maintenance procedure or because of vehicle misuse. Very occasionally they may be caused by defects in the manufacturing process.

It is too early to tell what has caused the failure in this case but the cause will clearly need to be carefully investigated. Likewise, driver error could have contributed to causing the loss of control of the coach after the tyre failure occured. Depending upon the outcome of the investigations into exactly what happened, Pilgrim Travel, the English travel company who organised the trip to Jordan may be legally liable to compensate victims and their families.

For free initial advice and assistance arising out of this incident please contact Clive Garner on 0870 1500 100 or 07710 971244.