Girl dies after 'shocking' school bus crash | Glasgow and West | STV News

A 17-year-old schoolgirl has died and three others are seriously injured after a school bus crashed near Biggar in atrocious weather conditions.

Strathclyde Police said the coach, which was carrying children on a school trip from Lanark Grammar School to Alton Towers, crashed around 5.50am on Wednesday.

The bus appeared to have hit a bridge parapet and left the road and landed on its side in a river. There were 39 children and six adults, including the driver, on board. The girl who died was later found in the water underneath the bus.

The dead girl was identified by a teacher and her parents are understood to have been told.

Superintendent Iain Murray, head of Strathclyde's road policing department, said: "Tragically one girl has died as a result of the crash. Two people were airlifted to Glasgow's Southern General Hospital and several others have been taken to local hospitals to be treated for their injuries.

"Our hearts go out to the people involved and their families at this sad time."

He praised drivers who stopped at the scene of the crash and villagers who helped deal with the aftermath.

The accident happened on the A73 at Wiston near Biggar. The village had been suffering from a power cut and had no electricity from 10pm on Tuesday because of snow.

After the accident, many of the children were taken to the local village hall.

Neil MacFarlane, who opened the hall, said: "I got a call from Strathclyde Police at about 6am asking if we could open up the hall because there had been an accident. We opened it up but there was no power. The first children arrived around 7am. We were just trying to get them dry.

"Most of them just had cuts and bruises."

A Sea King helicopter was flown in to taken the more serious casualties to hospital. Sixteen were taken to Hairmyres hospital in East Kilbride and all but five were discharged. Two were taken to the Southern General hospital in Glasgow and one later allowed to go home.

A further eight chidren were taken to Monklands Hospital in Coatbridge. Fourteen were taken to Wishaw General Hospital and 11 later discharged.

Strathclyde Police have asked parents of pupils involved in the bus crash to attend Lanark Grammar School and not the scene of the crash.

In a speech in London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "At a time when winter weather has returned in spring to many parts of the country, our thoughts are with the families and the friends of those children of Lanark Grammar School who have been seriously injured this morning in a bus accident in the north of our country."

Jim Hood, the Labour MP for Lanark and Hamilton East, added: "This is a terrible and shocking accident, and my thoughts and prayers are with the staff and pupils involved, and their families.

"What was supposed to be an enjoyable trip to Alton Towers has ended in horrific circumstances. Our praise and thanks go to the emergency services who responded to the accident in difficult weather conditions."


Cheers
MFCGAVMFC

What a sad story, my thoughts are with the girl's family. Such a terrible loss

Just seen this on Sky News, they had a live feed from he site.

Very sad and unexpected for this time of year.

a close relative of mine of works their

they got sent home due to this accident and the weather

terrible, absolutely terrible

to think i've raced over that bridge so many times

Cheers
MFCGAVMFC

Seen this myself on the news a while ago. Really sad and awful, especially for the poor lass's family and friends. I immediately thought of the DW'ers on that side of the border and hoped nobody was directly involved...

Thoughts with those involved.

What were they thinking driving a coach in such terrible weather on untreated roads. It's very sad but I can't help but think that this could have been avoided, strong snow showers were forecast for Scotland and Manchester, maybe that trip should have been cancelled.

i live about 30mins from lanark and there aint a bit of snow here

as soon as they got out of SOuth Lanarkshire they would have been into better weather conditions

but tbh it should have been cancelled, plus they bus company don't really have a good reputation anyway

Cheers
MFCGAVMFC

I saw this on the One show...tragic loss of a young life. They reported that one mother refused to let her son go on the trip because the weather was so bad, which lead the reporter to ask...why did the school not also make that decision ???

@munkey...it makes you wonder what goes through peoples heads. Only yesterday afternoon the met office put out an Emergency weather warning for NI and it stated that the high ground would get severe weather and NOT to travel....yet 300 people had to be rescued because they got caught in the blizzard conditions....they can't say the weren't warned.

Originally Posted by Munkey

What were they thinking driving a coach in such terrible weather on untreated roads. It's very sad but I can't help but think that this could have been avoided, strong snow showers were forecast for Scotland and Manchester, maybe that trip should have been cancelled.

very sad, should they have cancelled, probarbly. hindsight is a wonderful thing.

thebigman