Crash investigators have resumed their search to find out what caused a coach to crash down an embankment, killing one person and injuring 70 others.

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

The vehicle was carrying migrant workers from Poland, Latvia Lithuania, Romania and South Africa.

A 26-year-old man from Poland died and three people are critically ill.

Police said 21 people were taken to hospitals in Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, Burton-upon-Trent and in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

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The rest of the passengers were taken to Alton Towers for treatment after the crash on Station Road.

The British coach driver, who is thought to be from Lincolnshire, was seriously injured, West Midlands Ambulance Service said.

Emergency crews said the passengers were believed to have been living in the Peterborough area and had been on a trip to the theme park.

Ch Insp John Maddox, of Staffordshire Police, said the bus had been coming down a steep hill towards the bridge at the bottom, but failed to go around a steep bend, hit the wall and dropped into the garden.

He said officers were using interpreters to help speak to witnesses, and they were also speaking to "relevant embassies" to keep them fully informed.

'Like thunder'

Mr Maddox said investigators would be examining the coach on Tuesday morning, and afterwards specialist equipment would be used to move the vehicle.

He added that Station Road would remain closed until the coach had been removed.

Two air ambulances, 10 land ambulances, five rapid response vehicles and five fire engines were sent to the scene.

Ian Sloss, of Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said crews had been working "very hard in difficult circumstances" because of the awkward position in which the bus had ended up.

Terri Peachey, whose garden the coach crashed into, said she heard a sound "like thunder" when the accident happened, and found injured people "bleeding", screaming and "lying on the floor crying" in her garden.

Martin Bredda, who lives close to the crash scene, described the crash as "an accident waiting to happen".

"It's a narrow country road. It's mayhem, absolute mayhem," he said.

"We had a torrential downpour of rain just before it happened."

The theme park sent a minibus to the scene to collect anyone who had been released by the ambulance crews, a spokeswoman for Alton Towers said.

The bus is not connected to the theme park, she added.

Did you witness the crash? Send us your eye witness accounts using the form below.

(BBC)

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