{"id":36737,"date":"2013-04-18T12:21:02","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T09:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=36737"},"modified":"2013-04-18T12:21:02","modified_gmt":"2013-04-18T09:21:02","slug":"alps-bus-crashbritish-driver-warned-passengers-before-crash-uk-news-36737","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/alps-bus-crashbritish-driver-warned-passengers-before-crash-uk-news-36737\/","title":{"rendered":"Alps Bus Crash:British driver warned passengers before crash \/ UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"British-Coach-Crash-France\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

The British coach driver Maurice Wrightson who died in an accident in France warned his passengers they were about to crash, giving them time to escape.<\/h1>\n

Maurice Wrightson, 64, from County Durham was taking 52 Britons home from a ski trip when the bus careered off the road before smashing into rocks and bursting into flames near the resort of\u00a0Alpe d’Huez.<\/p>\n

Police suspect a problem with the vehicle’s brakes meant Mr Wrighton lost control of the vehicle.<\/p>\n

The French Minister of Transport,\u00a0Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Cuvillier, praised Mr Wrightson’s courage. “You can\u2019t call it a miracle because there is one dead and many wounded,” he said. “But the human toll could have been much heavier.”<\/p>\n

“The driver\u2019s courage saved many lives. All the testimonies of the people we have met have confirmed this. His attitude and his actions prevented an even worse situation.”<\/p>\n

UK travel organisation Abta said the passengers, who are staff at a Brighton-based ski company, are now on their way home.<\/p>\n

It has since been said that Mr Wrightson, who worked for Stanley-based firm Classic Coaches, alerted his passengers to the imminent crash which allowed them to prepare to escape.<\/p>\n

Several passengers leapt from the burning wreckage out of windows. At least four people were said to have been seriously injured, with those hurt being treated in local hospitals.<\/p>\n

A helicopter was sent to the scene where firefighters battled to put out the fire.<\/p>\n

A local police spokesman said: “The driver seems to have lost control on a steep bend in the road and his vehicle crashed into rocks.<\/p>\n

“It burst into flames but everyone is now out. Some passengers escaped by jumping out the windows.”<\/p>\n

TGM group which owns Classic Coaches confirmed in a statement: “Classic is a North East based company and the coach was being driven by a North East based driver.”<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The British coach driver Maurice Wrightson who died in an accident in France warned his passengers they were about to crash, giving them time to escape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,63,17,1,118,14],"tags":[49854,49859,49860,49864,49857,49855,49856,49861,49858,49862,49865,7831,49863],"class_list":["post-36737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-europe","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-alps-bus-crash","tag-british-bus-accident-france","tag-british-bus-crash-france","tag-british-coach-crash-france","tag-british-coach-driver-maurice-wrightson","tag-british-driver-bus-crash","tag-driver-warned-before-crash","tag-france-alps-bus-crash","tag-maurice-wrightson","tag-maurice-wrightson-giving-time-passengers","tag-travel-uk","tag-uk","tag-uk-travel-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36737\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}