Remembering the victims of Dibble's Bridge coach crash tragedy 50 years on: Carl Les

The coach in which the day-trippers were travelling failed to negotiate safely the very steep hill and the sharp bend at its foot leading on to the narrow bridge, known as Dibble’s Bridge, and it left the road. 33 of the passengers sadly lost their lives.

This tragedy shocked the nation and had a huge impact on the local community, an impact which is felt to this day.

On Tuesday, a memorial service was held at St Paul’s Church, conducted by the Bishop of Whitby and led by the Mayor of Thornaby-on-Tees, Councillor Glenn Eastick. North Yorkshire Council was represented by our newly-elected chair Councillor George Jabbour. The congregation included family members of those who had lost their lives, first responders and witnesses. We held a one minute silence at the start of our scheduled executive meeting at County Hall.

Thornaby was part of North Yorkshire (the North Riding), and is still part of the Lord Lieutenancy area to this day. A trip out to the Dales was a popular and common occurrence.

The tragedy was put down to brake failure, likely due to poor and ineffective vehicle maintenance, and a subsequent public inquiry has led to many advances in vehicle safety, notably in the fitting of electro-magnetic retarders that can stop a vehicle in the event of losing braking capability.

Although the cause of the tragedy was down to the inability of the driver to negotiate the bend because of the excessive speed due to vehicle defects, the location on the B6265 road is a very steep hill, with a sharp bend at the bottom.

Our council has also taken continual steps to improve safety across our roads, but here in particular we have improved signage, including vehicle activated signage well in advance of the hill, strengthened the parapet of the bridge, and fitted a fixed barrier to prevent vehicles leaving the road and falling into the valley alongside.

Meanwhile, 75 years ago this week, following some pilot episodes, a programme was aired that is still going strong today.

Indeed I write this article on a Sunday morning, with a break for a coffee and croissant whilst getting my fix of the Archers, that existential look in at English rural life that fitted in so perfectly with Lord Reith`s founding principles of BBC public broadcasting – information, entertainment and education.

There have been so many story lines in that time, so many events, including tragedies, too many to mention here. Could a village be so multi-layered?

Well those of us who are fortunate to live in them know that they are; every one could spawn a book or radio script. In The Archers we have gone from a young farmer trying to persuade his not so old father to move from ploughing with horses to buying their first tractor, to this week reading the will of the recently deceased character who appeared in the first episode. Now that’s some reach, and continuity.

Fifty years ago, in the political and societal troubled times of the 1970s, another programme aired for the first time, this time on tv – The Good Life.

This programme hasn’t lasted so long in the airing as The Archers, although it is still repeated on the secondary channels, but many of its themes were groundbreaking and have led to quiet revolutions.

Of course even then folk had allotments, in rural areas many properties have space around them, and my pal from Teesside remembers their council house with a tiny front garden for flowers (“mother’s domain”) and being sent down the vegetable back garden (dad’s) to get something for dinner.

At our hotel we had a part-time barman who came in once a week to clean the beer lines. His full-time job was manager of a poultry unit with a bungalow provided. He opined that having a vegetable garden attached added £40 a month in 1980 prices to the value of his job.

So horticulture et al was nothing new. What was comedic in The Good Life was that all this took place in leafy suburbia, around a detached house of considerable value, and in juxtaposition to the norm next door, Margot and Jerry, even if an exaggerated norm. Margot and Barbara were both economically inactive, and Tom bailed out of the ratrace although Jerry still drove his Volvo to the office in central London. How times have changed.

But who can forget Margot ordering Christmas to come in a van? Now it does regularly, from all main supermarkets, and all the other 52 weeks of the year as well. In our village we get milk twice a week, papers daily, Riverford Organics once. The only diminishing service is Royal Mail.

Carl Les is the leader of North Yorkshire Council