Seatbelts were not being worn on M53 fatal crash school coach

No one was wearing a seatbelt on a coach that crashed on a motorway and left a grammar school girl dead last month, a coroner has said. Jessica Baker, 15, was thrown from the vehicle and crushed underneath it after it veered off the carriageway, struck a tree and rolled down an embankment. The girl died instantly, the coroner said.

Driver Stephen Shrimpton, 40[1], also died in the accident on the M53 while travelling from Jessica’s home in Chester to West Kirby Grammar School in the Wirral. After opening an investigation, Andre Rebello has written to Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, and Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, to express his concerns. The senior coroner for Liverpool and Wirral said CCTV from the coach showed there were more than 50 pupils on board and none of them, nor the driver, were wearing seatbelts.

He warned that without action there may be more deaths in the future.

‘Seatbelts were fitted’

“This was a school commuter coach travelling on a motorway,” he wrote. “It was constructed after 2001 and will have had seatbelts fitted. “Review of CCTV does not show the seatbelts were being used. This coach had secondary school children on board.

Some of the pupils below 14 years of age would be expected to wear seatbelts under driver supervision. “The driver did not appear to be wearing a seatbelt. “A distinction should be drawn between school buses[2] in built-up areas and school commuter coaches travelling a distance using A roads and the motorway[3] network – with regard to the availability and use of seatbelts.

“I take judicial notice that using seatbelts can prevent some injury altogether, make inevitable injury less severe and reduce the risk of fatal injury.”

Public information campaigns

Mr Rebello asked the two ministers what advice government gives schools and colleges handing out school bus commuter contracts about the use of seatbelts, and what public information campaigns are being run about how using seatbelts improves safety. Asking for a response by Nov 30, he concludes: “In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you (and/or your organisation) have the power to take such action. “Your response must contain details of action taken or proposed to be taken, setting out the timetable for action.

Otherwise you must explain why no action is proposed.”

A police investigation into the incident is underway which the coroner’s court will review next March, Mr Rebello said.

References

1. ^ Driver Stephen Shrimpton, 40 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
2. ^ school buses (www.telegraph.co.uk)
3. ^ motorway (www.telegraph.co.uk)