Three killed and 50 in hospital after music festival coach crashes into oak

Three people have been killed and 50 injured, some of them seriously, after a coach returning from a music festival careered off a road and hit a tree.

Emergency services were working at the scene following the crash last night when a coach from the Merseyside area left the A3 near Hindhead in Surrey and hit an oak on an embankment.

The coach was returning in the direction of London with festivalgoers from the Bestival event on the Isle of Wight when it left the road at a bend between the Hindhead tunnel and the exit for Thursley at 11.50pm.

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Three people were killed, including the driver of the coach and all 50 survivors from the crash were taken to hospital, some of them with “life-changing” injuries. No other vehicles are believed to have been involved.

The northbound section of the road was still closed this afternoon and Surrey Police said the bodies of one man and one woman were removed from the coach. A third body is yet to be recovered.

Inspector Richard Mallett, of Surrey Police, said they do not believe that road conditions or the weather were a factor in the crash.

Casualties were taken to Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, St George’s Hospital in Tooting, King’s College Hospital in London, Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey and Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.

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One passenger was airlifted to Southampton General Hospital.

The coach is understood to have been operated by the company Merseypride Travel.

Some passengers were taken to a rest centre set up nearby by Waverley Council.

Mr Mallett said: “We are dealing with a major incident, a tragic major incident.”

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Later, he added: “The injuries range from life-changing injuries ... some people were unconscious when they were taken away from here. We believe some people might lose limbs and certainly there are some life-changing injuries amongst the survivors.

“The priority is to get the people out of the coach and then we can really begin to look at forwarding the investigation. We don’t think that the road conditions or the weather were a factor in this.”

Asked how long the coach had been on the road, he said: “We understand that it left the Isle of Wight festival, so we are less than an hour from Portsmouth where they come across (on the ferry). So less than an hour of this journey.

“Again, we need to make sure that we get the people out properly and then we can start looking at things like tacho charts and forwarding the investigation.”