This morning, the terrible news broke of a Merseyside coach returning from an Isle of Wight music festival, which overturned on the A3 just before midnight, killing three passengers and injuring at least three others likely to be from the Liverpool area.
Declared a ‘major incident, although the cause is yet unknown, the 50 passenger Merseypride Travel coach from Aintree was returning to Liverpool on Monday night when it crashed into a tree and overturned between the Hindhead Tunnel and the Thursley exit on the A3 Portsmouth Road.
All those who were injured have been taken to the following hospitals:
- Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth
- Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford
- St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey
- St George’s Hospital in Tooting
- Frimley Park Hospital
- King’s College Hospital, London
Identifying passengers is an urgent priority and both Surrey and Merseyside police are working together with the coach company to notify family and relatives.
Currently, the road is closed in both directions as crash investigators and police officers conduct a “thorough search of the scene including the coach and the surrounding area”, according to a spokeswoman for Surrey Police.
However, uncovering the cause could take some time as it has been observed that the road was dry with no other road conditions, which may have been a main or contributory factor.
A nearby rest centre has been set up for the other coach passengers who may be able to provide valuable information or even cameraphone images of events leading just up to or after the crash.
It has always been recommended by personal injury solicitors to take a disposable camera and a pen and paper whenever undertaking a journey in any vehicle. Today, this advice is easy to carry out as most mobiles or smartphones will have onboard cameras at good resolution.
Consequently, vital evidence can be recorded, which can be crucial to ongoing accident investigations, especially in difficult circumstances and may help towards securing accident compensation.
Surrey Police has set up a special casualty helpline for anyone concerned about the passengers who were travelling on the coach, on 0800 056 0154.
