Driver charged over coach deaths

Around 40 of those on board the coach were injured

The driver of a minibus has been charged with causing the death by negligence of five Britons in Tuesday's coach crash in Austria.

Austrian police have said they believe the coach was forced off the road by an overtaking minibus near Salzburg.

The five dead, from the south of England, were among a group of 49 on board the coach, 42 of them Britons.

The coach driver returned to the scene on Thursday to light a candle for the victims.

Crash trauma

Martin Faulhaber, 39, said he found it hard to sleep at night because the crash had been so upsetting.

"It is very, very hard for me to come here, but I had to come here to burn a candle for the victims," he said.

Mr Faulhaber, who lives in Salzburg, had been driving many of the passengers around all week and described the victims as "friends".

Austrian authorities announced the charges against the male Austrian minibus driver at a tense press conference.

The dead Britons have been named as David Hamilton, 33, of Dorset; Marian Ashby, 80, and her son Robert Ashby, 60, of Hatfield, Hertfordshire; Clare Patel, 39, of Amersham, Buckinghamshire; and Rebecca Earland, 16, of Tonbridge, Kent.

Forensic investigation

The crash happened on Wednesday near the town of Hallein, 25 miles from Salzburg in the Austrian Alps.

The coach turned over three times as it plunged 60m (about 196ft) off a mountainside.

Forty-two people were injured and 13 have been discharged from hospital.

Clare Patel's husband Dave was recovering in hospital but had been unable to personally tell their teenage children of their mother's death as they were being treated in a different hospital.

Family mourn Austria crash victim

Most of the passengers were on an excursion organised by tour firm Inghams to Berchtesgaden and had been staying at the resorts of St Wolfgang, Traunkirchen and Fuschl.

In a statement, Inghams expressed its "deepest sympathies to those involved and to their families and relatives" and paid tribute to the service provided by the Austrian medical and emergency services.

David Hamilton's mother Sandra said her son had phoned to say he and his girlfriend Liz had arrived safely in Austria.

"That was the last time I spoke to David.

"Liz phoned us from hospital after coming out of theatre but she didn't know what had happened to him," she said.

Rebecca Earland's father Geoff, a veteran firefighter with Kent Fire and Rescue Service, was seriously injured in the crash and her mother Celia was in a critical condition.

Chief fire officer Peter Coombs and Kent fire authority chairman Derek Dolding both expressed their sympathies to the Earland family.

The Foreign Office has set up a 24-hour emergency number - 020 7008 1500 - for members of the public to contact if they think they may have had friends or relatives involved in the crash.

A hotline opened by Inghams can be reached on 020 8780 6600.