One dead, 70 injured in bus crash near Alton Towers
One dead, 70 injured in bus crash near Alton Towers
(NewDesignWorld Press Release Center) -- One man has died and 70 others are injured after a coach rolled down an embankment and overturned in Staffordshire, emergency services say.
The double decker collided with a car, crashed through a wall and ended up in a garden in Alton, near Alton Towers theme park, just before 1800 BST.
Two people were airlifted to hospital from the scene and 20 others taken to hospital, ambulance officials said.
It is thought the passengers were foreign workers on a trip to the park.
It is believed they were from Lithuania, Poland and South Africa, living in the Peterborough area.
Chief Inspector John Maddox, from Staffordshire Police, said officers were trying to establish what caused the crash.
"The bus was coming down a steep hill towards the bridge at the bottom, and from what I can see at the scene, that bus has not managed to go round the bend, and has careered through a wall and down a drop into a garden," he said.
All people on the coach have been accounted for, he added.
The ambulance service said 44 walking wounded had been taken to Alton Towers for medical treatment.
Two air ambulances, 10 land ambulances, five rapid response vehicles and five fire engines have been sent to the scene.
Ian Sloss, a spokesman for the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said the scene was very difficult.
"There's a bus in a difficult situation which crews have had to secure and obviously the crews are working very hard in difficult circumstances," he said.
Two of the seriously injured were airlifted from the scene, one to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham and one to University Hospital North Staffordshire.
'Massive crash'
Bradley Ford, who lives at the nearby Alton Bridge Hotel, told BBC News he had helped with casualties.
He said: "I heard this massive crash, rumble, of either crunching metal or what sounded to me initially as a thunderstorm as it was heavily raining before.
"Then after that we heard shouts and screams so we obviously put it down to a crash.
"When I got to the scene there was a bus overturned, it looked like it had ploughed into a car and then down a neighbour's driveway into the garden.
"It must have dropped about 20ft. It was on a slope, it's diagonal, not head-first."
He added: "There were people climbing out of the fire exits on the bus. There were many walking wounded, all being seen to by the ambulance staff."
The collision happened on Station Road, between Alton and the theme park, which is about one mile away.
Margaret Grice, who lives near the scene, said some of the injured banged on her front door.
She said: "I went to the front door and there was... there was about 12 to 15 people, all crying hysterically, blood running down their faces and their arms and... They couldn't speak English but they were able to say "accident, accident" so at that point I then rang 999."
Martin Bredda, who lives close to the scene of the crash, described it as "an accident waiting to happen".
"It's a narrow country road. It's mayhem, absolute mayhem. We had a torrential downpour of rain just before it happened.
"I was in the local pub when someone came in screaming for blankets and sheets.
"We all went to help but the area had been cordoned off by police."
The staff canteen at the theme park has been set aside to provide shelter and refreshments.
They park sent a minibus to the scene to collect anyone who had been released by the ambulance crews, a spokeswoman said.
The bus is not connected to Alton Towers, she added.
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