Northern Irish driver killed in school tour bus crash

A Northern Irish bus driver has died and a 13-year-old boy has suffered a fractured skull after a bus carrying 34 British school pupils crashed in Belgium.

Brentwood School in Essex confirmed the coach was carrying children aged between 11 and 13, and that one child was in intensive care after suffering a head injury.

Six teachers were also on the coach which was travelling to Cologne in Germany when it crashed into a bridge in Middelkerke, West Flanders, and shot off the road. The coach involved in the crash is owned by Richmond Coaches of Ballinderry Road, Lisburn, in Northern Ireland, and a company spokesman confirmed it only employed Northern Irish drivers. He added that it was now trying to establish the identity of the driver and his assistant, adding: “Any incident involving a coach crash like this is clearly a tragedy.” Local councillor Patrick Catney, who knows the McKenna family who run Richmond Coaches, described the crash as a “tragedy”.

“This is so sad, it’s so tragic,” he said.

“This company is very long-established and has a great safety record – they only operate top of the line luxury coaches.” Mr Catney said his thoughts were with the family of the victim.

The school’s head teacher Ian Davies said: “All of the children managed to walk off the coach.One of the children subsequently had a head injury. He had a scan and they found a small brain bleed as part of his fractured skull.” He added that some parents were trying to get to Belgium and that some teachers had already set off.”