A teenage girl has died and 44 people were treated in hospital today after a school bus crashed in southwest Scotland in "absolutely atrocious" conditions as it set off on an end-of-term trip to Alton Towers.
Natasha Jade Paton was among 39 pupils and five teachers from Lanark Grammar School, who had travelled just 12 miles when their driver lost control of the coach on a sharp bend at around 5.50am. The bus crashed through a bridge parapet and fell 10ft, partially submerging itself in a river next to the A73.
Ambulances and a rescue helicopter struggled to reach the scene, close to the village of Wiston in South Lanarkshire. They found that some of the passengers, mainly sixth form pupils aged 16 and 17, had managed to get out of the coach and scramble up the embankment, and were sitting in the back of an HGV lorry whose driver had stopped to help. Other passengers were still trapped in the coach which was partly full of icy water, and had to be helped out through a smashed sunroof.
Natasha, who was 17, and lived at Cleghorn in Lanarkshire, was found to be missing when the emergency services conducted a head count.
"Following that we carried out a complete search of the area and in doing so unfortunately found the girl who subsequently lost her life," said Jim Doyle, of Strathclyde Fire and Rescue.
"She had been thrown out and swept underneath, but the bus is not lying totally flat... there is a gap underneath so she was located under that." He added that she had apparently been thrown out of a sunroof. Her death was reported shortly before noon.
The dead girl was named this afternoon by Strathclyde Police, as friends left messages of grief and condolence on Facebook.
Vegas Barbie posted: "Rip Natasha youl never be forgoton..cant believe it il always remember the good times we had together..like the time we drew all over our faces with eyeliner al never forget you.. youl be sadly missed my thoughts are with your family."
Three other people were badly hurt, including the driver who suffered cuts and a broken leg and was carried out of the vehicle on a stretcher, and were taken to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow and Wishaw General Hospital in Lanarkshire. By lunchtime 25 people had been treated and discharged from local hospitals, and further 16 people were still being treated at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie and Hairmyres at East Kilbride.
Superintendant Iain Murray of Strathclyde Police said officers were investigating the reason for the accident, but that the weather was partly to blame.
"Given the conditions it must have had a major part to play in it," he said.
Parents of pupils on the stricken coach were asked to assemble at the school, rather than attempt to reach the scene of the crash, which was sealed off by police. Other pupils were sent home for the day.
Mark Attwood, a local resident who was woken by the sound of the crash, described how an adult came to his door asking for help. “They said a couple of schoolchildren needed heating up. They were obviously shocked and upset and I am as well. It happened so close to my house and my own children use that route. I’m very shaken up.”
Questions were this afternoon being asked about why the school had decided to go ahead with the 250 mile road trip from Scotland to Staffordshire, given the hazardous conditions.
The Met Office had put out its highest level of alert, an Emergency Flash weather warning, for the South Lanarkshire area at 3.37pm yesterday afternoon, warning of danger to life and risk to infrastructure due to extreme weather conditions blocking roads and bringing down power lines.
Its warning stated: "Over upland parts of eastern Lanarkshire 25cm of snow could accumulate with deep drifts. Some roads liable to be impassable and some interruptions to power supplies are possible.
"The public are advised to take extra care and refer to Traffic Scotland for further advice on road conditions."
Met Office staff appeared regularly on television and radio bulletins in Scotland yesterday to warn of the bad weather.
A spokeswoman for the Met Office said that the first warnings of weather hazards for yesterday and today were put out as early as last Friday. "I would like to hope that (the school) would have been aware," said the spokeswoman.
Susan Thornton told BBC Scotland that she had stopped her son Adam from going on the school trip because of the weather.
"I just said the roads were too treacherous, that they shouldn't make the journey, " she said.
"He said to me he woke up at four anyway because he was desperate to go. He wanted to be with his friends and have a nice time but he said at four he knew he couldn't go."
Alan Purdie, the owner of the Lanarkshire-based company Photoflash which ran the coach, said: “It is a tragedy. We are all deeply concerned for the parents (of the dead girl) this morning. The company is distraught.”
Mr Purdie admitted that the conditions had been treacherous. He told Radio Clyde: “The main roads had snow on them but were not that bad. But there was black ice under the snow on that road. We cannot say any more.”
Carla Ballone, a spokeswoman for the Alton Towers theme park, said that there was no need for the school to have pressed on with the trip through atrocious weather for fear of losing its money on the bookings. "If a refund wasn't available I'm sure that we would have arranged some complimentary tickets on another day," said Ms Ballone.
South Lanarkshire Council, which handles press inquiries on the school's behalf, justifed the excursion, which it said was an annual trip to Alton Towers "as a welcome break for sixth-year students from their exam preparation before the Easter holidays".
Larry Forde, the council's director of education, said: “The headteacher Mark Sherry and everyone connected with the school wish to express their sympathies to all those involved.
“At this moment, our major focus is on the young people, their families and staff within the school. Social work and psychological services have joined staff at the school offering support. Throughout the day, Mr Sherry and colleagues within the school have been working to keep the families of those involved informed.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of one of our senior students at Lanark Grammar who died this morning, and all who were injured.”
Andrew Howard, the AA's head of road safety, declined to criticise the school, saying that it was a very difficult judgment call to decide whether to call off a trip, notifying all the parents who would then have to make alternative arrangements.
"I expect those who criticise the school for running this trip would have criticised the school for closing down for bad weather," said Mr Howard. "It's always easy to criticise after the event."
Supt Murray praised truck drivers at the scene who had stopped to give assistance, and local people who had opened Wiston village hall to give shelter and warmth to the crash survivors. He also said that the winding country road where the coach crashed was the most direct route from the school in Lanark to the southbound M74 motorway.
It was not clear whether the council had gritted the road, but even if it had it might have made little difference, as the grit would not have been effective until a number of vehicles had driven over it, grinding the snow and grit together to create a more stable driving surface, he said.
Gordon Brown said in a speech in London that his thoughts were with the family and friends of crash victims. Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, concurred, adding that the crash was "almost certainly weather-related".
Jim Hood, the Labour MP for Lanark and Hamilton East, said: “This is a terrible and shocking accident and my thoughts and prayers are with the staff and pupils involved, and their families."
The tragedy, four days after the start of British Summer Time, came as blizzards, gale force winds and torrential rain felled power lines and caused transport chaos across northern Britain.
Hours earlier in Northern Ireland, police, mountain rescue and coastguards had to be drafted in to rescue around 300 people, including children on a school bus, from more than 100 vehicles which became stranded when 4ft-high snowdrifts blocked both ends of the mountainous Glenshane Pass, a main route between Belfast and Londonderry.
Source:The Times
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