Crashed coach removed from site

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Aerial footage of the bus lying in a garden in Staffordshire

A coach which careered down an embankment killing a 26-year-old Polish man and injuring 71 people has now been removed from the crash site.

The coach collided with two cars, crashed through a wall and ended up in a garden near the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire on Monday.

The bus, from a firm in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, had been carrying farm migrant workers on a day trip.

The road reopened at 0630 BST. Three people are in a critical condition.

Investigators used specialist cranes to remove the shell of the coach from the scene in Station Road, Alton, on Tuesday.

Life-threatening

Tests are being carried out on it at a police garage to try to find out how the crash happened.

Police have now travelled to Northamptonshire to interview the passengers, who were fruit pickers who were based at Lutton Farm in Oundle.

Staffordshire Police said they expected the interview process to take "several weeks".

A total of seven people are still in hospital.

Police said on Wednesday the condition of a 21-year-old woman being treated at Birmingham's Selly Oak Hospital had worsened.

She is now said to be in a critical condition.

Police said the 63-year-old driver, from the Peterborough area, is in a critical but not life-threatening condition in intensive care at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire after suffering "serious leg injuries".

No-one was inside either of the cars that the coach hit

Officers said he provided a negative breath test.

A 21-year-old woman from Poland was also in a critical life-threatening condition at the same hospital.

Four others remain in stable conditions and are being treated at various hospitals across the West Midlands.

There were passengers from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and a man from South Africa on the coach.

Local residents in Alton started laying flowers at the scene of the crash on Wednesday morning.

Detailed investigation

Ch Insp John Maddox of Staffordshire Police said letters were being delivered to villagers thanking them for their co-operation following the crash.

He said: "A specialist police team is carrying out searches at the scene today to recover any further evidence and items of personal property, which will be returned to passengers from the coach.

"A detailed police investigation is now underway and it is vital that any witnesses who have not yet come forward contact us as soon as possible."

No-one was inside either of the stationary cars which the bus hit.

Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones, and also with those others who have been seriously injured The Long family, Lutton Farm

A statement released by the Long family, who own the farm where the workers had been based, paid tribute to the man who died.

It said: "The Long family knows many of those injured personally, and the young man who was sadly killed had worked on our farm for the last three summers.

"Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones, and also with those others who have been seriously injured."

The crash has caused villagers to repeat calls for a bypass to take away theme park traffic away from Alton.

A public meeting had been scheduled between residents and the park for next year, but campaigners have been calling for it to be brought forward.

Speaking on Tuesday, Russell Barnes, the park's regional director, said he was "disappointed" the issue had been raised.

The vehicle involved in the crash was owned by Decker Bus, based in Whittlesey, near Peterborough.