Dream trip became a nightmare

On a French motorway the scene of devastation and horror will forever haunt the memories of the survivors, some of whom were enjoying a trip as a family or to celebrate their retirement when the unthinkable happened.

Today, 16 years after the coach they were travelling in plunged off the road and into a ditch, relatives and survivors were finally having the chance to start putting the nightmare which robbed them of their loved ones behind them.

An inquest in Telford was today finally going ahead after legal proceedings were concluded following years of red tape and heartache for the families, who come from across the Black Country, Staffordshire and Shropshire.

Three years ago the coach driver, John Johnston, who was 49 at the time and from Chell Heath, Stoke-on-Trent, was given a 30-month suspended jail sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

A court in Sens, France, heard he had been speeding at 76mph in a 56mph zone when a tyre blew, causing him to lose control and throwing passengers through shattered windows and into the aisles.

Among the dead were two Wolverhampton couples and a man from Oldbury - Thomas Orme, aged 60, and his wife Irene, of Bushbury Lane, Wolverhampton; George Evans, 65, and his wife Joan, 60, of Milldale Crescent, Fordhouses; and motorway worker Michael Reynolds, aged 45, of Princess Road, Oldbury.

Mr Reynolds had been on holiday with wife Valerie and their three children Michelle, Lee and Kim.

Mrs Reynolds, a cashier at the King's cinema in West Bromwich, lay injured in hospital not knowing that her 45-year-old husband Michael had been killed. Both she and 17-year-old son Lee suffered serious injuries in the carnage.

Speaking from her hospital trolley before learning of her husband's death, she said: "The police and hospital authorities won't tell me anything about him. I am so worried. I'm fearing the worst.''

Saved

Mrs Reynolds, who suffered a badly cut back and numerous bruises, was asleep when disaster struck and could only remember waking up on the ground outside.

Michelle, aged 19 at the time, said her boyfriend Jason Grice had saved her life.

Jason, also 19, of Green Lane, Walsall, a sales representative for Tipton-based soft drinks firm Alpine, pushed her out through a shattered window as the coach skidded on its side.

Jason recalled: "I was asleep and woke up when I heard a bang. The coach started swaying like a ship. Everyone started to scream. The coach went through a ditch and rolled over. The back window was smashed and I cut my arm as I pushed Michelle out."

Mrs Reynolds was tangled in barbed wire and had to be cut free by the fire service.

Jason said the passengers on the lower deck were mainly children.

Speaking to the Express & Star in the aftermath, Wolverhampton survivor Norman Wood described how he saw his brother-in-law George Evans lying dead underneath the injured driver. Mr and Mrs Evans had gone on the trip to mark their retirement.

Mr Wood's wife Peggy was hospitalised with a broken pelvis and thigh bone.

Twenty-nine of the 72 passengers on board the coach were from Telford.

Those who died from the Shropshire town were Ronnie James, of Hilton Close, Stirchley Park; Christine Ann Yates, 46, of Singleton, Sutton Hill; Teresa Sanders, 18, of Ryton Way, Stirchley; Kathleen Jones, 46, of Shelley Drive, Sutton Heights; Christopher Trevor Acton Ware, 10, of Harrington Heath, Shawbirch; and Phyllis Maud Biddulph, of Mossclay Road, St Georges.

By Nick Pritchard