Crash backlash
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ANOTHER TWIST to the debate about coach safety has emerged in the past week, with the industry turning the tables on highway authorities.
West Yorkshire Road Car has rerouted its York-London National Express coaches by the A63 and Al to avoid the A162 Tadcaster-Brotherton road at Burton Salmon, following an accident in which a coach collided with an oncoming car and killed the three occupants of the car.
Neither the coach nor its driver was to blame for the accident, but West Yorkshire said the road was "like a sheet of glass" and created a high risk of skidding. It believes a similar accident, but without any injuries, occurred earlier.
And in Essex, the Transport and General Workers' Union is protesting about the condition of the A120 Braintree-Colchester road on which a driver died and 14 others were injured this month in two separate coach accidents.
In the fatal accident, a Tourmaster driver, from Stevenage, was killed when his coach ran over him after he was thrown through the windscreen. The coach had gone out of control and spun into a ditch at Great Tey, near Colchester. The earlier accident was a collision between a car and a coach.
The TGWU Colchester branch, which represents Eastern National employees, is
threatening industrial action if the road is not resurfaced. Vicesecretary Shirley Ghent said: "It is a very, very dangerous piece of road, and we are aware of this because we use it every day.
"The surface is completely, smooth, and when there is rain on it after a long sunny period it is just like a skating rink. There is no grip on the road," she added.
She said the road needed to be widened and resurfaced, and in the absence of any action by Essex County Council, drivers might take action on their own. But this would not take place immediately.