A HERO ex-jockey who ferried children to safety from the horrific bus crash in Somerset has revealed that he couldn’t sleep following the tragedy.
Alan Jones, 64, drove passengers to safety on the back of his quad bike after they escaped the crash site.
PAA bus carrying pupils from Minehead Middle School fell from a 20ft cliff on Thursday[/caption]
PASadly, one child died in the crash and many others were injured[/caption]
PAAlan Jones, an ex-jockey, used his quad bike to get many of the children to safety[/caption]
On Thursday, a bus carrying 60 to 70 pupils from Minehead Middle School fell off a 20ft slope.
The vehicle was returning from a trip to Exmoor Zoo, before leaving the A396 at Cutcombe Hill and falling from the height.
Alan, an ex-jockey, took eight adults and children to the Rest and Be Thankful Inn in Wheddon Cross – following the horrifying crash.
The heroic driver used his quad bike to travel across the nearby fields, after the road was closed.
However, the sights he saw left him unable to sleep when he got home.
Opening up about the crash, Alan said: “It’s the most remote place.
“The children coming out of that accident wouldn’t have known where they were.
“I think it would have been wrong not to try and help. I was there in under 10 minutes.
“When I got there, the road was closed and the police were everywhere. Everybody was just looking at the bus.
“I didn’t know there were any fatalities at the time, but I knew there were children still in the bus, and all of the police officers were just basically around the bus and there wasn’t anybody else about, really; I was the only local person there.”
Alan said that he helped two teachers on the side of the road first.
Whilst driving the two women towards the pub, he saw a group of children and one adult who had been instructed to head to the pub.
The inn was being used as a safe hub for the bus’s passengers.
Alan said that the group didn’t know where they were, when he reached them.
He said: “They were just sort of stranded there. They didn’t know what was going on, really.
“They wouldn’t have known where they were and there were high trees behind and in front of them because the road runs through the cliff a bit.
“You could see they were injured and crying and upset.
“It was too far, these were very young middle school children. They’d just been upside down in a bus, over a cliff, all the windows had broken in the bus, and they’d scrambled out and been helped out by emergency services.
PAAlan drove passengers to a nearby inn[/caption]
“I presume some of them were told to make their way up but they just couldn’t walk up.”
Two teachers were picked up by an ambulance, while Alan worked to get the others to the inn.
He says that the teachers and their pupils were a “sorry sight”, but everyone nearby “dropped everything” to help.
One teacher said to him that they were “never going back on a bus or coach ever again”.
When he got to the top, ambulances picked up the two women so he returned to pick up another teacher and child.
Sadly, a 10-year-old boy died in the crash and six children and three adults are still in hospital.
A resident in West Somerset has launched a GoFundMe campaign to support those affected.
The campaign has already raised more than £15,000 in just a day.
Despite having no direct connections to those affected by the crash, Bobbie Raymond said he launched the fund because he had a “strong desire” to help.
He wrote on the fundraising page: “We are all heartbroken by the tragic school bus crash that occurred on the A396 on July 17.
Emily Manning, 10, climbed on board the doomed 70-seater after an end of term trip to the zoo but was told to get off because it was already full
“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the children, families, staff, and emergency responders affected by this devastating event.
“As a father of two young children myself, I can only begin to imagine the pain and heartbreak that so many are experiencing right now.
“This tragedy has shaken the local community, and like many others, I felt a strong desire to do what I could to help.
“I understand this is a sensitive time, and while the specific use of the fund will be shaped by the needs of those involved my promise is to ensure it reaches the people who need it most.”
One schoolgirl, Emily Manning, 10, climbed onto the bus as it was preparing to leave but was told to get off at the last minute.
She was told that the bus was already full and that she needed to get on the other coach.
Emily got on the other bus which returned her home safely, while the other veered off the 20ft slope.
She said: “It had been a really nice day at the zoo. I wanted to go on the second coach because that’s where my friends were but there were too many people so I got off.
“Everybody was in front of me and that meant I couldn’t. I was upset because my friends were on that bus but also lucky.”
Her dad, Nick Manning, 48, a window cleaner from Minehead, said: “I just feel incredibly grateful that she wasn’t on it. I got a phone call when I was still at work asking me if I had picked up Emily yet because something terrible had happened.
“It’s every parent’s nightmare, it’s absolutely awful. I had constant messages and phone calls checking Emily was ok. People were panicking.”
An off-duty firefighter also pulled over upon seeing the crash and climbed down to the coach, before pulling passengers from the wreckage.
Gavin Ellis, Chief Fire Officer for Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, said: “We were mobilised to a major incident to a coach that had overturned onto its roof and slip approximately 20ft (6.1m) down an embankment.
“I’m grateful to the off-duty firefighter who was travelling behind the coach at the point of the collision who was able to start taking immediate [action] to start releasing those casualties from the bus.”
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
