Tragic trip to school that claimed lives of promising pupil and young Chester dad

At just after 8am yesterday morning, a coach full with school pupils travelling north near Hooton on the busy M53 motorway left the carriage way, overturned and came to rest on the hard shoulder. As traffic came to a standstill around the Carvers coach that now lay on its side, emergency services scrambled by land and air towards what would soon be declared the scene of a major incident.

The crashed W3 service is one of several coaches that each school day transports pupils from Chester^[1] and Ellesmere Port^[2] to two prestigious Wirral^[3] grammar schools, Calday Grange and West Kirby. Within minutes of the crash, motorists reported seeing children beginning to clamber from the wreckage and gather at the side of the road. Air ambulances, police, paramedics and fire crews soon arrived to assess the scale of the incident and to determine how many casualties would need treatment.

As news of the crash reached nearby Arrowe Park hospital, medics who were manning a picket line downed their placards and returned to their posts in advance of receiving injured victims.

READ: Schoolgirl, 15, killed in M53 bus crash named by heartbroken family^[4] | Jessica Baker died in the M53 coach tragedy

READ: Aerial images show devastation of M53 school bus crash^[5] | More than 50 people were treated after coach overturned on busy motorway

Within hours of the crash, police confirmed that there had been “a number of casualties”. And at a press conference yesterday afternoon came the awful news that two people had lost their lives - one of them a teenage girl^[6], and the other the man who had been driving around 50 pupils to their final school day of the week.

It was later into the evening that the identity of the younger victim emerged. She was named as Jessica Baker, a 15-year-old pupil of West Kirby Grammar School for girls. And shortly afterwards, the family of coach driver Stephen Shrimpton revealed that he had been the other person who had lost their life. Mr Shrimpton was said to have suffered a medical incident at the wheel. Believed to be in his early 30s, Mr Shrimpton is understood to live in Chester and to leave behind a wife and two children, aged eight and four.

Last night, a 14-year-old boy was said to still be undergoing treatment for what were described as “life-changing injuries^[7]”. In total 52 people - the majority of them children - were triaged at a medical training centre on the Wirral, and 39 of them were discharged as not needing further treatment. Another 13 were treated for minor injuries and later released.

Justin Madders, the MP For Ellesmere Port and Neston^[8], said the news of the deaths of Jessica Baker and Stephen Shrimpton was “devastating”, adding: “My heart goes out to the loved ones of the schoolgirl and driver who have died.

“Many children will have gone to school on that motorway today and on countless other days without incident, and it is an absolute tragedy that such an everyday occurrence has resulted in these fatalities.

“The local community and the school community will no doubt be traumatised by the events of today, and there will be professional help for those who have been affected.”

Late last night the Old Girls Association of West Kirby Grammar School, which counts among its former pupils the late actress and politician Glenda Jackson and the late celebrated children’s author Shirley Hughes, offers its condolences at news of the tragedy.

On its Facebook page it wrote: “It is with great sadness that we learned of the loss of a West Kirby Grammar School student, Jessica Baker, aged 15, today in a bus accident.

"Our deepest sympathies go out to the families and friends of all those affected by this tragedy.”

A GoFundMe page for Mr Shrimpton’s family had raised nearly £5,00 by midnight last night, with his sister-in-law Emily Church appealing to well-wishers to help support her sister and Mr Shrimpton’s “two young children who are now going to grow up without their beloved father.”

To support the GoFundMe appeal, visit here^[9].

Anyone with information about the collision is asked to call the Matrix Serious Collision Investigation Unit on (0151) 777 5747 or [email protected]^[10] or contact @MerPolCC on Twitter or Merseyside Police Contact Centre on Facebook quoting reference 23000944471.

NEWSLETTER: Sign up for CheshireLive email direct to your inbox here^[11]

References

1. ^{^} Chester (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)
2. ^{^} Ellesmere Port (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)
3. ^{^} Wirral (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)
4. ^{^} Schoolgirl, 15, killed in M53 bus crash named by heartbroken family (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)
5. ^{^} Aerial images show devastation of M53 school bus crash (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)
6. ^{^} one of them a teenage girl (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)
7. ^{^} 14-year-old boy was said to still be undergoing treatment for what were described as “life-changing injuries (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)
8. ^{^} Neston (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)
9. ^{^} visit here (gofund.me)
10. ^{^} [email protected] (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)
11. ^{^} Sign up for CheshireLive email direct to your inbox here (www.cheshire-live.co.uk)