Crash coach operator fined £200
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• The owner of a coach which crashed on a hill at Helmsley, N. Yorkshire, while on a pensioners' outing last August, killing 10 people, was fined £200 by Ryedale magistrates on Monday, on four charges relating to the condition of the vehicle.
Richard M. Daniel, 60, of Barbican Road, York, proprietor of Maurice Coachways, admitted using a coach with defective tyres, defective brakes, broken leaf spring at the rear, and six untightened retaining nuts on the rear offside wheel. He was ordered to pay £50 towards costs. The driver of the coach, Gerald Crompton, 26, of Danebury Drive, York, admitted using the vehicle with a defective brake and was fined £20.
Mr Basil Lauriston, prosecuting, said it was a matter for great concern that people should go out in a coach licensed by the authorities and inspected at intervals and yet in such condition.
Mr Geoffrey Mitchell, for Daniel, said Daniel, who had been in the coach business for 23 years, had an excellent record as a coach proprietor and had not deliberately exposed the coachload of people to die by his error. His offence was one of omission.