Joigny coach crash
| Joigny coach crash | |
|---|---|
| Details | |
| Date | 3 June 1990 |
| Time | 08:00 |
| Location | Joigny |
| Country |
 France |
| Bus operator | Montego European Travel |
| Bus owner | Pineda Holidays |
| Type of incident | single-vehicle crash |
| Cause | Blowout caused by excessive speed |
| Statistics | |
| Passengers | 69 |
| Deaths | 11 |
| Injuries | 61 |
Joigny coach crash was a single vehicle accident that occurred in Joigny, Yonne of the A6 autoroute (France) when a British registered double decker coach crashed when it was driving in excess of 78mph in an attempt to make up for lost time, causing the tyre to blowout.
Subsequently, the court case was subjected to a 13-year delay, becoming the longest legal case in France and has been brought up in the House of Commons.[1]
Accident
Montego European Travel who were based in Wetley Rocks, Staffordshire; began business with two buses in April 1990. The buses were leased from Telford based Pineda Holidays.[2] One of its vehicles, a 76-seat double-decker coach,[3] containing 69 passengers from the West Midlands or Liverpool from the age of 9 to 76, 6 guides and a driver, was on a return trip to Birmingham from Nîmes[4] with sources stating that it was making its return from Costa Brava, Spain.[2][5][6][3] The coach passed inspection in July 1989 and was due for another for the following July.[1]
Whilst travelling along the main north-south portion of the A6 autoroute 80 miles south of Paris at 8am,[1] the coach's front offside tyre suffered a blowout at 78 mph[3][2] which was more than 20mph over the legal speed limit because it was making up for lost time.[6] The coach swerved into a ditch, tumble onto its side and slid more than 300 feet before going through concrete fence posts and stopping at a wheatfield.[2][3] It took four hours to extract trapped passengers from the wreckage.[2] Just before the accident, passengers voiced their concerns about the coach's excessive speed and it's erratic movement to a courier but was dismissed.[3]
Casualties
A total of eleven passengers were killed and 61 injured, 33 of those were hospitalised overnight. Of those died, six passengers were from Telford, Shropshire and five from the West Midlands in which all but one, who was from Oldbury, were from Wolverhampton.[4][6] [3] A majority of them were sitting at the front [2] The victims were aged between ten and 68.[3] The driver, John Johnston from Stoke-on-Trent at the time, was seriously hurt but survived.[2] A news article by Evening Standard claimed that he had been driving for the company for 10-days but was licensed to drive this type of vehicle for over two years.[1] One of those died, an 18-year-old female, was 17-weeks pregnant[7] The tyres was later found to be under-inflated[6] though were in a good condition.[1]
At the time of the accident, it was compulsory for all buses built since 1988 to be equipped with speed limiters, those between 1984 and 1988 was required since 1 April 1990 to have them around that year and those between 1974 and 1983 were required by April 1991. Coaches were not required to carry seat belt as at the time was opposed by the majority of the European Union[1]
The accident became the worst since 1982 when 53 people, including 44 children, died when their tourist bus caught fire following a pile-up near Beaune.[8][2]
Legal proceedings
The court case took 13-years for it to begin proceeding due to the complexity of the case, by then, one of the defendant, Johnston had to be represented by a lawyer in France as he was too ill to be present in person.[9][6]
In a court case taking place in Sens, the judge rejected a claim that the case should have been thrown out due to the time length it took to bring this case to court[6]
Avon Rubber was subjected to a lawsuit as prosecutors claimed the tyres to be defectively manufactured[6] It's then chief executive, who faced charge, was cleared after appeal after his lawyer claimed "charges had not been served properly".[10] One of the directors of the coach company, who lost everything following the accident, was cleared of manslaughter charges[6]
The driver, John Johnston, was convicted of a 30-month suspended sentence[6]in July 2003 for involuntary manslaughter[3] in addition to a five-year driving ban. He made an appeal but his case was rejected[11] but because of this, the paperwork for the inquest could not be sent to the England until earlier 2006.[3] Johnston died of natural causes in August 2006[3] at the age of 68.[12]
The case was eventually ruled as accidental death in late 2006 by Coroner Michael Gwynne.[3] The family of the victims were suggested that they could sue the French Government.[9] Given the length of the legal processing, the accident became the longest legal case in France.[6]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 5 Jun 1990". Retrieved 17 January 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "British Tourist Bus Flips in France, Killing 11, Injuring 61". Retrieved 17 January 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 birminghammail Administrator (1 November 2006). "Britons coach crash deaths 'accidental'". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
- 1 2 JEFFERIES, RAMAGE & BRISTOW 1991, pp. 92-96.
- ↑ Marjorie Michel (23 October 2015). "L'accident de la route le plus meutrier en France depuis 1982". Sud-Ouest. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Bus driver guilty of 1990 deaths". BBC News. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
- ↑ "Justice for father after 18 years". Shropshire Star. Archived from the original on 27 June 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
- ↑ "42 die in France’s worst road accident since 1982". The NEWS. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
- 1 2 "French 'sorry' over inquiry delay". BBC News. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
- ↑ "Charges against Avon boss dropped". This Is Wiltshire. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
- ↑ "Appeal over 11 coach crash deaths". BBC News. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
- ↑ "Accident verdict over coach crash". BBC News. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
Works cited
- JEFFERIES, N. J.; RAMAGE, C.; BRISTOW, A. (1991). "International repatriation following overseas disasters" (PDF). Emergency Medicine (The BMJ) (8): 92–96. Retrieved 21 April 2016.