Coach driver charged over crash

The accident happened on a Lake District mountain

A coach driver has been charged with dangerous driving following a crash on a mountain pass in which pensioners were injured.

Fred Messenger, 53, will appear in court in January charged with dangerous driving and another offence relating to the condition of the vehicle he was driving.

Mr Messenger, of Ashington, Northumberland, will face magistrates in Kendal on 14 January, 2003.

He was driving 43 mainly elderly day-trippers along a mountain road in the Lake District on 8 June, 2002.

The coach was travelling between Ullswater and Ambleside in the Lakes when the vehicle came off Kirkstone Road, and fell 20 feet.

At total of 39 passengers were taken to five hospitals in the North West.