Two seriously injured after punk band’s coach plunges 30ft from viaduct

The band, Baroness, from Savannah in Georgia, were part-way through a tour of the UK and Europe when their vehicle crashed through a safety barrier and fell 30ft (9m). They had played to hundreds of fans in Sheffield on Monday night at the city’s Corporation venue.

Emergency services said two people, including the driver, were trapped in the wreckage. They were cut free and taken to Frenchay Hospital in Bristol with multiple fractures.

According to Great Western Ambulance Service, the other seven suffered more minor injuries and were taken to Royal United Hospital in Bath.

Baroness consists of John Baizley, Peter Adams, Matt Maggioni and Allen Blickle. They played in Bristol on Tuesday night and were travelling to a gig in Southampton when the accident happened at the junction of Brassknocker Hill and the A36 in Bath at 11.30am.

A spokesman for the band said: “Baroness were in a serious bus accident last night near Bath, England. The band members and crew are recovering at local hospitals. All tour dates are postponed until further notice.”

Witnesses said they heard a loud bang and rushed to the scene.

Site manager Tony Cook, 61, was one of the first to arrive as he was working at a property at the bottom of Brassknocker Hill.

When he and some of the other workers got to the coach they found the driver hanging out of the front window, Mr Cook said.

After helping him out, the driver told them there had been a problem with the steering.

“At the top of the hill it is quite windy so they were going quite slow and seemed to be taking it quite carefully,” Mr Cook said.

“It was torrential rain. It was like one of these eastern storms or something, it was like a river down here.

“Whether the brakes went at the bottom or, what the driver said to one of my blokes, was that the steering went, he couldn’t get around the corner. So whether the hydraulics or something went, I don’t know.

“When we got down there the driver was hanging out of the front of the coach but his legs were trapped so we had to free him and get him back and comfortable.

“Then we got some ladders down there so that the people that were conscious inside could get out.”