Survivors weep at M62 hen party funeral of nurse Beth

Beth Jones, 18, died in the collision between the bus and a lorry on the M62 near Pontefract in West Yorkshire in April.

Today, many of Miss Jones’s friends who were injured in the crash were in tears as they waited for the cortege to arrive outside St Joseph’s Church, in South Elmsall, West Yorkshire.

Six of them arrived in wheelchairs and others walked into church with the help of crutches.

Among the mourners was Stefanie Firth, whose forthcoming wedding was being celebrated by the women on the day Miss Jones died.

They were travelling from South Elmsall, between Doncaster and Wakefield, for the hen night in Liverpool.

Miss Firth, 24, was among those seriously injured in the crash.

Twenty women on the bus were hurt, eight of them seriously.

Mourners lined the streets of South Elmsall as the cortege approached the church.

Many of those waiting were wearing pink clothes and sporting pink flowers.

Miss Jones’s brother Ryan helped carry the white coffin into the church.

The coffin and the hearse were decorated with a mass of pink and white flowers.

Miss Jones’s parents, Diane and Paul, led the mourners along with her boyfriend, Nathan Hurcomb.

Diane Jones was also injured in the crash and she walked into the church with the aid of crutches.

Miss Jones’s sister, Amy, was in a wheelchair.

Miss Firth walked into the church still wearing a neck brace, supported by her fiancee Gary Leafe. The pair had been due to get married in the fortnight after the crash.

Tributes in the 90-minute long service were led by Miss Jones’s brother, Ryan Jones.

Reading a message from their sister, Amy, he said: “My beautiful baby sister.

“I can’t begin the explain, that I had the most amazing sister in the whole wide world, my best friend forever.

“I will never forget you. We were the same on the inside and out. Love you always, your big sister.”

And reading a message from their father, he said: “My little girl - not just beautiful on the outside but stunning on the inside.”

He added: “Beth could light up any room with her smile and warmth. A true diamond.”

Miss Jones’s cousin, Becca Thompson, told the packed church her friend was a “fun, caring, happy-go-lucky girl who would always wear a smile to brighten up any day”.

She said Miss Jones was the “big sister I never had - my best friend”.

The service, which began with music from St Wilfrid’s Catholic High School Choir and ended with the hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful, was relayed by speakers to the many mourners who gathered outside the packed church.

Miss Jones was in the first year of a nursing course at Leeds University.

She died in the crash that happened close to one of the off-slips of junction 32 of the motorway. The lorry involved was travelling in the same direction.

Firefighters who attended the battered minibus said the scene was one of the worst they had ever seen.