Coach crash prompts speed limit threat
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THE THREAT of a lower speed limit for coaches and .a ban on their use of the fast lane of motorways resurfaced after 13 people died on Monday in the worst single British motorway accident on record.
The crash, 600m north of a coned-off 'section of die M6 in Lancashire, involved a Scottish Citylink Metroliner coach and 13 other vehicles. Three of the dead were in the coach which caught fire along with the two cars in collision with its front and back.
The other 39 passengers escaped from the coach, although 21 were detained in hospital on Tuesday, but the driver suffered a suspected heart attack at the scene of the accident, Three vehicle inspectors from the Department of Transport's Bristol-based vehicle inspection division went to the scene immediately to assist police in investigating the cause of the accident. .
And Transport Minister Lynda Chalker promised MPs on Tuesday that preliminary finds from their inquiry are expected to be in the hands of Ministers next week.
13ot Chalker also hinted that a fast lane ban and lower speed limits might yet be introduced for coaches. She told She was cheered by MPs when she assured local Tory MP Elaine Kellett-Bowman that she would look at a fast lane ban "and other evidence".
She promised Labour MP Harry Ewing that she would look into the ease of an operator charged and convicted three times of exceeding the limit on the M.
A Bus and Coach Council spokesman told CM on Tuesday the DTp's c.).Wri statistics show that speeding is less of a problem with coaches than other vehicles. In 1983, a DTp survey showed that 2.3 per cent of coaches exceeded the limit," as against 39 per cent of lorries and 40 per cent of cars.
A National Express spokesman criticised the Government for talking of imposing restrictions when the coach could not have exceeded the speed limit and was in the inside lane.
A Scottish Bus Group spokesman confirmed that the Metroliner in the accident was
fitted with an Econocruise top-speed limiter. The group would conduct an internal investigation, he said, in conjunction with Metro-Cammell Weyniann, which built the coach.
Eye witnesses say that the coach caught fire immediately after the impact with the two cars, and othersat the scene testify, to the roof, front and offside of the coach having been destroyed.
' But its steel frame, wiring and underside suffered little damage.
The DTp's plans for tougher coach safety features include upholstery, interibr soft trim, • carpeting, •bulkheads and floors conforming to British Standards for flammability, The Metroliner in the crash • did, but some informed sources say that the glue with which soft -trim is fixed is a highly flammable substance.