Five people were killed and another five seriously injured when a Polish bus carrying Russian and Ukrainian teenagers crashed over the side of a Belgian motorway bridge this morning.
The coach carrying 40 teenagers, between 15 and 17, lost control, smashed through the barrier and plummeted from a bridge on the E34 motorway near Ranst, Antwerp at dawn, 6.30 am (4.30am GMT) on Sunday.
The driver, the tour guide and three teenagers were killed in the crash on an overnight journey from Volgograd to Paris, two people were critically injured and another three are in serious condition in local hospitals.
The absence of braking skid marks on the road have led investigators to focus on the theory that the driver of the Polish registered coach had fallen asleep at the wheel.
The bus crashed through guardrails, falling 18 feet, rolling down an embankment and ending up on its side under the motorway.
"My thoughts go to the victims. Our emergency services and authorities will make every effort to help them," said Elio Di Rupo, the Belgian Prime Minister on Twitter this morning.
Lode Hofmans, the mayor of Broechem, the local town where emergency rescue attempts were coordinated, said that the authorities were bracing themselves for the grim task of dealing with the parents of the crash victims.
"They were on their way to Paris, but it is still unclear whether it was a school or youth club trip," he said. "At the moment we are already inundated with calls from Russia, the news is apparently already seeping through."
The accident has stirred memories and comparisons with a coach crash in March last year when a bus carrying Belgian school children hit the side of the Sierre Tunnel in Switzerland, killing 22 and six adults accompanying them.
Sunday 14 April 2013
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/9993005/Five-killed-in-Belgian-coach-crash.html
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