European Coach accident

[fatboy18]

OK, bit of a hairy one!
Driving down through France 12/04/14 early hours of the morning the Holiday coach we are traveling on ploughs into a concrete contraflow pushing at least 3 of the concrete blocks a couple of feet into the lane of the oncoming traffic I'm half asleep on the back seat but sitting directly in the aisle, there were overhead signs up displaying 110kph. The Coach had two drivers but one was asleep and I'm convinced the other driver just lost concentration for a split second and st happened!

So what happened next!

Driver pulled up at the side of the road (normally the hard shoulder)However because of the Concrete contraflow (on our side of the dual carriageway), the dual carriage way inside lane had been diverted into the Hard shoulder.
He pulled up about 300YDS (200mtrs?) after the impact and went off to see what he had hit! He had not put on a Hi Vis vest (French law) had not put the coach hazard warning lights and left us all on-board in a state of disbelief and shock!

Worse was to come in the form of a small convoy of lorry's which were coming down upon us, some switching to main beam and braking when realising we had stopped! EEK. Have to say I woke up as many people as possible realising we may get tail ended by a bloody great artic!

The coach drivers by this time realised they were in a sticky situation returned to the coach and promptly continued onward to the resort destination.

Now a few miles up the road a service station appeared, but the coach continued on past it and not one of the drivers walked down the isle to calm the passengers or asking them if they had hurt themselves.

The driver said he had hit a Deer,(this then changed to a rock) but this was complete bks as I had seen the coach riding up the concrete barriers and had confirmed this by the lorry Headlights lighting up the uneven line of bolted together concrete barriers as I looked out of the rear window of the coach!

When the coach did actually stop in a safe place to transfer other passengers to a mini bus to continue to their resort Hotel, I got out and inspected the front of the coach. The LHS of the coach had been badly damaged, the lower front bumper (just in front of the entrance door) was missing and all front headlights on the LHS were broken and hanging down with broken fibreglass, the coach front windscreen was also cracked.

As far as I'm aware neither Driver contacted the French Police and reported they had Hit something and that there may be wreckage or a dead animal on the carriageway!

Now just imagine how scary this must have been for the cars in the contraflow! I saw 3 cars break as they realised the barriers had been pushed into there lane making a pinch point that they had to squeeze through.

Now the owner of the company happened to be at the resort when we arrived the next morning and asked me for my side of the story before he spoke with the driver. I have heard the roomer that the driver has been dismissed, but can't confirm this?

It was later confirmed to me by the other driver that my account of things had been spot on and that when they returned the coach to the UK the following day they had passed the accident spot and seen the impact point in daylight!

Now being as this is a Holiday company, would they not be liable for not reporting the accident?

I have pictures of the damaged coach

Edited by fatboy18 on Friday 18th April 18:14

[fatboy18]

Sadly I don't have the lead to connect my phone to my laptop with me

Will upload pics in a couple of days time

[fatboy18]

Chrisgr31 said:

Not sure what the OP is seeking to achieve though. We all make mistakes and it could have been a lot worse and the driver seems to have lost his job. What else do you want?

Well that's the point of the thread, I don't actually know if the driver has lost his job? Should the French Police be informed? Does the Holiday Company have a legal responsibility to inform them?

I would have thought the answer to that is Yes, but how would I know if this has been done?

I had taken 5 18yr olds on a Holiday so feel if anything had happened to them I would somehow have to be responsible?

[fatboy18]

Turns out the Driver HAS Been dismissed.

Pic does not show full extent of damage, Broken Windscreen, bent bumper framework behind damaged front!


I'm leaving as that, just glad to be home in one piece.

Edited by fatboy18 on Sunday 20th April 18:37

[fatboy18]

No read the beginning of the post they were concrete barriers. He shoved 3 of them over a couple of feet causing a pinch point to oncoming traffic! He did not hit them Head on! The one he clipped was at an angle where the contraflow was diverting back traffic back onto the correct carriageway. There was a lot of bent metal behind that fibreglass part which needed to be pulled out. And as I said he was not speeding.

As I also said the pic off my phone is not showing the cracks to the windscreen.

Bottom line is you would have expected the Driver and Drivers mate to do the right thing and sadly they did not!

[fatboy18]

Was just looking for advice from someone who deals with public transport, never was interested in any stupid whiplash claims, just the legal responsibility's of a travel company and the required actions of the drivers.

I have tried to paint an accurate description of what happened.

I do wonder if any of you had been traveling with your friends or family's how you might have reacted? What if that had been You in your car in the contraflow and suddenly barriers are being pushed towards you by a bloody great coach!

I have other pics but they show the number plate of the coach and I have not mentioned the company name. I have Googled the company history and found a few other horror stories.
Needless to say I will not be using them again!

Edited by fatboy18 on Monday 21st April 20:50

[fatboy18]

Valid Point

[fatboy18]

berlintaxi said:

TroubledSoul said:

Not sure why people seem determined to get on the OP's back about this?

Seems that there's always somebody waiting for an opportunity to have a pop on here.

Nobody having a pop, just surprised by the levels of damage and the tale of "ploughing" into concrete at 68mph/110kmh, drivers I have seem to do more damage tapping a truck in the yard.

I was sitting in the BACK seat, I could not see the drivers speedo, The Overhead signs on the motorway showed a reduced speed of 110kph, I also said the driver did not seem to be speeding. He did not hit the concrete barriers Head on, The barrier he first hit was at a 45 degree angle with the coach then riding the next barrier pushing it into the oncoming traffic. If the Driver had been more awake he would have bloody seen what he was about to hit. he did not swerve prior to hitting the thing which is why I used the term Ploughed into it. He did well to control the coach after the impact, but to then stop and walk back without even putting the Hazard's on at 10 to 6 in the morning was rather worrying.

Edited by fatboy18 on Tuesday 22 April 21:44

[fatboy18]

ViperDave said:

Chrisgr31 said:

fatboy18 said:

I have other pics but they show the number plate of the coach and I have not mentioned the company name. I have Googled the company history and found a few other horror stories.
Needless to say I will not be using them again!

Edited by fatboy18 on Monday 21st April 20:50

Even if my family or I had been on the coach I would still have been fairly relaxed about the issue. Accidents are by definition accidents and caused usually by someone making a mistake. Now if the coac company was taking the michael on driving hours etc then one might have a valid complaint but the driver wouldnt have hit the concrete on purpose and the suspicion must be he lost concentration.

I would also be careful about googling for incidents involving the coach company. After all the first thing you have to know is how many coaches a company has, its almost guaranteed that a company with 100 coaches will have more incidents than one with one coach. Also people will always be quicker to criticisie than they are to commend, and once a company has one incident especially if it is high profile its likely to bring all the net warriors out the woodwork, whereas another company has had more incidents but they have not made the net.

But I'm not sure accidents are acceptable on public transport. Its one thing if they are caused by a third party (MOP) doing something dumb a coach driver couldn't have foreseen, or even another coach driver pushing the concrete barrier into their lane previously, but things like losing concentration, falling asleep, lack of maintenance are not acceptable in the air, on the rails so why is it OK on the road providing no one was hurt or killed.

I had considered mark could report them to the HSE but it looks as if it wouldn't be in their remit, VOSA and DVLA seem to now be DVSA but there doesn't seem to be a way (that i have found so far) to report un-safe operations, which only leaves the police who probably don't care as no one was hurt.

As for the damage to the bus, fiberglass and plastic can hide very serious damage behind, as it bends or breaks but can return to near its original position whilst the structural frame behind is seriously damaged. I know this as my car was written off with major crushing of the crumple zones in the chassis despite the plastic bumper looking like it just needed a bit of t-cut.

Thanks Dave, Good to see someone sees the point in the post.

[fatboy18]

SV8Predator said:

fatboy18 said:

was sitting in the BACK seat, I could not see the drivers taco,

And he was eating at the wheel? No wonder you're upset.

Was it the smell of the taco that woke you up?

Bloody spell check

[fatboy18]

GC8 said:

I find the OPs determination to ensure that the driver lost his job to be particularly weasel-like. You should take a long hard look at yourself.

WOW!

For the record mate I did not sack the driver the company did, apparently his attitude to the event did not help him with the Boss, he had also damaged the rear of the coach earlier in the season!

There are many of these overnight companies driving young school children and students to Ski resorts, I think it is you who should sit back and think for a moment.

Weasel-like? Mate do you think it was right for the Driver to carry on to resort without stopping to report what had happened?
Do you think it was right that he did not stop at the next SOS phone or service station and inspect the damage under proper light?
I have tried to give an account of what happened.
I am trying to find out what the industry procedures are in such an event, nothing more?
Was I happy with the Driver....NO, did he deserve to loose his job? In my opinion YES, Not because of the Accident but because of his conduct before and after the event.

[fatboy18]

Hello MrCJN
Thank you for your post, its interesting to hear from a Driver in the industry.

You make some strong statements there.
'Anybody STUPID enough to allow travel OVERNIGHT travel needs to gets to real It is dangerous'

If this is the case, it seems your industry is in need a serious shake up?
As I said in my previous post there are, as you know, many companies that transport students and school children to Ski Resorts. Your comments raise some serious concerns!

Bit confused by this statement,
'The operator you travelled with is a respected company'
Er....I have not named the company (PH Rules)

'You might have felt a slight bump, but barely enough to knock Pepsi over'
It was a bit more than that, as after the coach came down off the concrete barrier the driver did well to stop the coach swerving side to side!

Accidents happen, I fully accept that, but what I did not accept was the indifference the driver showed to the incident, the failure to stop at the next service station to inspect the damage under light and that he did not report the accident to the local authorities as a Public carrier.

Barriers had been moved, wreckage was on the carriageway. Failure to put on Hazzard lights.

For the record the two drivers we had for the return trip were very professional in their attitude representing the company and the DRIVING was very good. We returned the UK on the same coach, the Windscreen had still not been replaced (a week later,with several cracks across it) the light cluster had been replaced and supporting brackets for bumper parts had been pulled out.

[fatboy18]

CLEARLY