Four British tourists have been seriously injured and the bus driver killed after the tour bus in which they were travelling crashed in the French Alps.
A French prosecutor who is conducting the preliminary investigation into the accident says that brake failure seems likely to have been the cause of the crash, and praised the bus driver for his courage and for taking actions that may have saved the lives of his passengers.
The tour bus was owned by British bus company Classic Coaches, and was carrying 26 young British citizens, mostly in their 20s, who were on their way home after working at ski resorts in the Alps for the winter. The bus was traversing a mountainous pass near the popular resort town of Alpe d’Huez when the it veered off the road on a hairpin bend, smashing into a cliff face and bursting into flames. The accident occurred on the 21st of a series of treacherous hairpin bends along the pass, at approximately 1.45 pm on Tuesday afternoon.
Grenoble prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat, who is in charge of the investigation into the accident, said that the full investigation is likely to take some time, but the most likely cause of the accident was brake failure.
According to accounts from surviving passengers, the bus driver had shouted to the passengers that the bus’s brakes were not working as the bus flew down the pass, traversing the hairpin bends at high speed. The driver was killed instantly in the accident, and four of the passengers sustained serious injuries. 22 other passengers sustained moderate to minor injuries, and have been transported to the CHU hospital in Grenoble where they are receiving treatment.
The French Junior minister for transport, Frederic Culliver, visited the survivors of the accident in hospital on Tuesday evening. Culliver praised the deceased bus driver for his ‘remarkable courage’ and said that his actions in the moments leading up to the accident saved many lives. Culliver was accompanied on his visit to the hospital by the British Ambassador in France, Sir Peter Rickets.
The Classic Coaches company that operated the bus has confirmed that the bus was en route from the Serre Chevalier resort to a number of points in the UK where it would be dropping the passengers at home. The managing director of the company, Heath Williams, has extended his condolences and support to the bus driver’s family members.