Van driver trapped after coach crash

Thursday 7th July 2011, 11:30AM BST.

A coach carrying around 20 school children crashed with a van in South Staffordshire today, blocking a road and injuring a driver.

Mangled metal and smashed glass were strewn over Pattingham Road after the accident, which saw the coach mount a grass verge.

Click on the image on the right to see more pictures.

The 42-year-old driver of the van was cut free from the wreckage by firefighters and flown to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham after the Midlands Air Ambulance was scrambled from Cosford.

His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. The coach, operated by Prospect Coaches based in Lye, Stourbridge, was heading towards Pattingham to pick up more children when it crashed along the 40mph route at 8.16am.

None of the children, from St Peter’s Collegiate C of E School and St Edmund’s Catholic School in Wolverhampton, were hurt.

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View more: Pattingham news, South Staffordshire news, Wolverhampton news.