The worst coach crash in the UK

[wheeltapper49]

The above link is a very moving but informative documentary re the 1975 Dibbles Bridge accident in the Yorkshire dales.
Coach travel was not the safest way to travel back then, but the lessons learnt are explored in this film.

 

[route101]

How safe is it now?

 

[upasalmon]

There was a crash in southern England a couple of years ago involving fatalities of passengers and the driver. The coach was returning to Liverpool having taken passengers to/from an Isle Of Wight music festival.
The coach belonged to the now defunct Merseypride Travel and the tyres burst having been in use for 19 YEARS, and they were older than the coach itself.

 

[Statto]

There was a crash in southern England a couple of years ago involving fatalities of passengers and the driver. The coach was returning to Liverpool having taken passengers to/from an Isle Of Wight music festival.
The coach belonged to the now defunct Merseypride Travel and the tyres burst having been in use for 19 YEARS, and they were older than the coach itself.

I remember that, & not long ago, owners got banned from operating buses & coaches, Merseypride Travel closed down not long after that.

Bestival coach crash: Merseypride Travel owners banned indefinitely

A father and daughter are banned from operating buses and coaches after a coach crashed, killing three people on the way back from a music festival.

www.bbc.co.uk

Another i remember 2007 was on the slip road from M4 to M25 involving a National Express coach, the driver was speeding around a bend on the slip road, had numerous offences for speeding, plus a couple of years earlier was disciplined by his employer for tampering with the speed limiter.

 

[cnjb8]

I remember that, & not long ago, owners got banned from operating buses & coaches, Merseypride Travel closed down not long after that.

Bestival coach crash: Merseypride Travel owners banned indefinitely

A father and daughter are banned from operating buses and coaches after a coach crashed, killing three people on the way back from a music festival.

www.bbc.co.uk

Another i remember 2007 was on the slip road from M4 to M25 involving a National Express coach, the driver was speeding around a bend on the slip road, had numerous offences for speeding, plus a couple of years earlier was disciplined by his employer for tampering with the speed limiter.

Wasn't that the crash that meant National Express stopped using their double deck Neoplan coaches?

 

[LOL The Irony]

Wasn't that the crash that meant National Express stopped using their double deck Neoplan coaches?

EDIT: They were deemed safe, so if someone could elaborate on their removal.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Coach travel is now very safe, as advances to vehicle design have been accompanied by advances in drivers' hours control (damn those Europeans) and other legislative changes.

I think it was this accident http://archive.commercialmotor.com/... ban on their use,coach and 13 other vehicles. when an Eastern Scottish MCW Metroliner ploughed into stationary traffic that led to coaches being banned from the fast lane.

This issue gained prominence after a number of coach crashes in the mid 1980s and this quote from Hansard https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1988/mar/09/a1m-safety quotes a survey done by the Today newspaper (Millennials, ask your father about Today newspaper, Generation Z, ask you father what a newspaper was)

I should like to quote from Today newspaper which says: The perils of high-speed coaches have become a daily fact of life on Britain's motorways as drivers battle to keep to timetables. In recent years these have led to a spate of fatal crashes. The article goes on to say: Using a Porsche sports car—widely accepted in the motor industry as having the most accurate speedometer—the speeds of passing vehicles were monitored. Within minutes, as the Porsche kept to 70 mph, the first offender roared past. The single-decker owned by the Berks/Bucks Bus Company was travelling at between 75 mph and 80 mph as it carried passengers into London. Shortly after, the British Airways coach, driving even faster, powered past…During a similar check on the M1 between Leeds and Manchester, almost all the long-distance coaches were driving to the maximum speed limit. At one stage a coach operated by Fastway, part of the Wakefield-based West Riding Automobile Company, was seen travelling at 85 mph on the outside edge of the fast lane, spraying dust and dirt on to cars behind it. The newspaper's evidence is consistently backed up by the results of more scientific studies, including those of the Minister's Department.

It is no use blaming coach drivers' self-indulgence for the problem. The real danger appears to arise from under-generous scheduling by companies anxious to make the most use of their vehicles and to present the most competitive journey times, however nominal. The five hour 15 minute scheduled journey from Newcastle to London preserves a legal average speed of about 60 miles an hour. However, it fails to take account of the time needed for intermediate stops, roadworks and the congested approaches to London. It can mean drivers rushing to make up time to meet advertised connections or to prevent inroads into their rest time before they must start on their return journey. Keeping up with the timetable can mean speeds of well over 80 mph.

 

[Unstoppable]

As a long distance coach driver I would say coach travel is definitely much safer now. You have so many safety features with new coaches such as Panoramas where if you go into a bend at a speed the vehicle determines too fast (I would call it over sensitive) it brakes you down to the speed it determines fit. Companies also use Green road which monitors the severity of manouvers and tachograph infringements such as speeding is taken very seriously. The build of vehicles such as the Vanhool Astromega seems solid. Look at the 3 people who died when their driver drove the car in front of one at Inverbervie on the A90 to Aberdeen. The driver and all passengers were uninjured, well, at least physically

 

[LOL The Irony]

As a long distance coach driver I would say coach travel is definitely much safer now. You have so many safety features with new coaches such as Panoramas where if you go into a bend at a speed the vehicle determines too fast (I would call it over sensitive) it brakes you down to the speed it determines fit. Companies also use Green road which monitors the severity of manouvers and tachograph infringements such as speeding is taken very seriously. The build of vehicles such as the Vanhool Astromega seems solid. Look at the 3 people who died when their driver drove the car in front of one at Inverbervie on the A90 to Aberdeen. The driver and all passengers were uninjured, well, at least physically

There's also the 1 person who died when the car they were travelling in was t boned by a NatEx Scania Levante tri-axle in London. Although it did catch fire afterwards.

 

[cnjb8]

As a long distance coach driver I would say coach travel is definitely much safer now. You have so many safety features with new coaches such as Panoramas where if you go into a bend at a speed the vehicle determines too fast (I would call it over sensitive) it brakes you down to the speed it determines fit. Companies also use Green road which monitors the severity of manouvers and tachograph infringements such as speeding is taken very seriously. The build of vehicles such as the Vanhool Astromega seems solid. Look at the 3 people who died when their driver drove the car in front of one at Inverbervie on the A90 to Aberdeen. The driver and all passengers were uninjured, well, at least physically

But isn't that the coach that had to go to Van Hool in Paris to get repaired?

 

[M803UYA]

The above link is a very moving but informative documentary re the 1975 Dibbles Bridge accident in the Yorkshire dales.
Coach travel was not the safest way to travel back then, but the lessons learnt are explored in this film.

This documentary quite often gets screened on together tv, which is where I first found it.

 

[upasalmon]

cnjb8 It wasn't a National Express coach . It was the so called "Merseypride". They aren't missed.

 

[LOL The Irony]

cnjb8 It wasn't a National Express coach . It was the so called "Merseypride". They aren't missed.

I got confused by that too, the whole post was quoted rather than this part;

Another i remember 2007 was on the slip road from M4 to M25 involving a National Express coach, the driver was speeding around a bend on the slip road, had numerous offences for speeding, plus a couple of years earlier was disciplined by his employer for tampering with the speed limiter.

 

[DunsBus]

There was also this one in 1969 near Stanhope in County Durham, when the brakes failed on a coach descending the steep Crawleyside Bank. Nineteen people were killed including the daughter of the coach driver.

The Crawleyside bus crash which took the lives of 19 people

FIFTY years ago, at the top of Crawleyside bank, shrouded in mist, about 500ft above Stanhope at the start of a two-mile descent down the…

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk

 

[cnjb8]

cnjb8 It wasn't a National Express coach . It was the so called "Merseypride". They aren't missed.

I got confused by that too, the whole post was quoted rather than this part;

Yeah sorry

 

[Statto]

I got confused by that too, the whole post was quoted rather than this part;

I was trying to post those in separate posts, but the forum has an annoying habit of merging posts, if another post gets posted by the same member quickly.

 

[Eyersey468]

I heard somewhere that there have been 2 bad coach crashes at Dibbles Bridge over the years