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Updated:One dead and 70 hurt in bus fall

by LotusFlower | August 18, 2008 at 11:26 am

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Update: Injured has risen to 70. Workers on trip to Alton Towers theme park near the village of Alton are thought to be immigrant farm workers based in east of England town Peterborough. Police are now investigating cause of crash. Two air ambulances, 10 land ambulances, five rapid response vehicles and five fire engines were sent to the scene. The collision happened on Station Road, between Alton and the theme park, which is about one mile away. The bus was a double-decker.

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Breaking news: A coach has gone off a bridge near Alton Towers Theme Park in Staffordshire UK. So far reports are of one confirmed death with 44 injured. The Theme park is reported to have opened its cafe for emergency services co-ordination. Up to 7 are still trapped (at 20:38 BST). Up to 77 are reported as being on the bus at the time of the crash which happened in torrential rain.

Update 20.40 BST: All passengers are foreign workers are reported as being on a day trip to Alton Towers and 44 are currently being treated at Alton Towers itself before being taken to hospital.

One person was killed and 44 injured when a bus careered off a bridge in Staffordshire.

The double decker collided with a car before falling about 45ft from a bridge over the River Churnet near Alton Towers theme park just before 1800 BST.

Three people were seriously hurt, one with head injuries. Seven others are trapped inside the bus, which is on its roof next to the river.

It is believed the passengers are not from the UK.

The ambulance service said there were several walking wounded

A man was killed and more than 60 people injured when a double-decker coach returning from a trip to Alton Towers in Staffordshire crashed over a bridge last night.

The coach, believed to have been carrying 70 European farm workers from near Peterborough, was coming down a steep hill in the village of Alton at about 6pm and failed to take a corner, plunging 20 feet down an embankment and turning over.

A 20-year-old woman who was airlifted to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham was in a critical condition and fighting for her life. Another "very seriously" injured casualty was flown to University Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent. Six people were immobilised using spinal boards and neck collars and taken to the Stoke hospital by road, while nine others with minor injuries were taken to local hospitals. A further 44 people were treated at the Alton Towers medical centre.