Driver faces 'substantial' jail term over coach crash

THE driver of a Scotland-bound coach faces a "substantial" jail sentence after admitting causing a horrific crash, which killed three people on a motorway sliproad.

Philip Rooney, of Carluke, South Lanarkshire, will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to death by dangerous driving when he appeared at the Old Bailey in London yesterday.

The 48-year-old was behind the wheel of a National Express double-decker with 67 passengers on board when it overturned on a sliproad between the M4 and M25 near Heathrow Airport on 3 January last year.

Christina Toner, 76, of Monifieth, near Dundee, and Yi Di Lin, 30, a Chinese national, died in the crash.

John Carruthers, 78, from Chertsey in Surrey, died six months later in hospital.

Mrs Toner's husband, Jimmy, a former player for Dundee FC and Leeds United, was seriously injured in the crash.

Several passengers lost limbs, including a mother, her seven-month-old daughter and her son, aged three.

No-one on board escaped unscathed.

A rescue worker, speaking at the time of the accident, said of the mother and her two children: "All three were trapped by tangled metal and the weight of the overturned bus.

"That poor family will have a permanent memory of this accident, because they have each lost a limb. It is almost too terrible to imagine."

A surgeon who helped to treat the injured said some of them had been "thrown or dragged along grass or mud, because there was heavy contamination of all the wounds".

The London-Aberdeen coach, which had called at Heathrow just before it crashed, was also due to have stopped at Carlisle, Hamilton, Glasgow and Dundee. Most of the passengers were travelling to Glasgow.

The coach left Victoria in central London at 10:30pm and crashed at 11:45pm. No other vehicle was involved. Several passengers told relatives the coach had been running half an hour late, but National Express said the vehicle had left Heathrow only ten minutes behind schedule. The firm withdrew its fleet of 12 Neoplan Skyliner double-deckers after the crash, as a precaution.

They were returned to service five months later after no safety problems were detected.

At yesterday's hearing, Mr Justice Gross told Rooney: "Can I make it plain that substantial custody is inevitable?"

Rooney admitted three charges of death by dangerous driving, and was released on bail. He will be sentenced on 24 November, following preparation of background reports.

Rooney, and a co-driver travelling with him, worked for Park's of Hamilton, which operated all London-Scotland services for National Express.

James Lant, the stepbrother of one of the injured passengers, said Rooney's guilty plea had been the "right decision".

Michael Milbourne, who was travelling home to Symington in Lanarkshire after spending time with relatives in London, suffered a fractured vertebra in the crash.

Mr Lant said: "A lot of people lost limbs and some died in that crash. I think it's the right decision."

Commenting on his stepbrother's mental and physical health as a result of the crash, he said: "He's never quite been the same.

"He still gets these terrible headaches and has trouble with his back.

"He always looks on the bright side, so he's OK in himself, but at his age it's not good to have been in a crash – it's not good at any age."

Family and friends paid tribute after the crash to Mrs Toner's "immense generosity of spirit".

They said she was "wonderful and wild, full of laughter, happiness and generosity. She was beautiful.

"Always the life and soul of the party, she lit up any room."