Driver arrested after UK coach overturns

The driver of a National Express coach in the UK which overturned on the M1 motorway has tonight been arrested on suspicion of drink driving and dangerous driving.

Thames Valley Police arrested the man after he was cut free from the single-decker coach which toppled over on the entry slip road to the Newport Pagnell services in Buckinghamshire.

Thirty-three passengers had to be rescued and six were seriously injured in the crash just after 4pm.

National Express said the bus left Birmingham Digbeth at 2pm and stopped at Birmingham International at 2.20pm and Coventry at 2.40pm. It was on its way to Luton Airport and was due to arrive at Stansted Airport in Essex at 5.55pm.

Police were called by service station managers just after 4pm. Four ambulances went to the scene.

A spokesman for South Central Ambulance at the scene said 34 people had been taken off the bus.

Six were seriously injured, 11 were walking wounded and 17 were discharged at the scene, he added.

One of the passengers said the coach was “going fast round corners” before the crash.

Kirsty Plummer, from Luton, said: “I knew something was going to happen, the driver was swerving so I put my seat belt on.”

She said other passengers who did not fasten their seat belts fell on top of her as the coach overturned and were more seriously injured.

Eddie Gershon, a spokesman for Welcome Break, which operates the service station, said: “The coach went over on its side after hitting a lamp post and a tree, I’ve been told, and ended up in the car park.

“About a dozen staff from Newport Pagnell came out and gave initial first aid before the emergency services arrived.”

A spokeswoman for Thames Valley Police said: “It appears that shortly after 4pm the National Express coach clipped a kerb and rolled on to its side.

“A number of passengers have been taken to hospitals in Milton Keynes, Northampton and Oxford. There are many walking wounded.”

Traffic on the motorway was not affected but access to the services was blocked off.

Witness Raj Bagna said the injured were mainly “walking wounded”.

He said: “They were. There were just a few which we had to physically carry out of the coach.”

In January, three people died following a crash in which a National Express coach overturned on a motorway slip road.

The vehicle was travelling from Heathrow airport bound for Glasgow when the accident happened on the junction between the M4 and the M25.

Christina Toner, 76, from Dundee and a man of Chinese origin died in the accident. John Carruthers, 78, of Chertsey, Surrey died six months later as a result of the injuries he sustained. Others had limbs torn off.

The company temporarily withdrew its entire fleet of double-decker coaches for safety checks after the crash.

A spokeswoman for National Express said tonight: “We are working closely with the emergency services in order to provide as much information to friends and relatives of passengers on board.”

She said she could not comment on news of the driver’s arrest.