M40 minibus crash
| Date | 18 November 1993 |
|---|---|
| Location | M40 motorway near Warwick, England |
| Deaths | 13 |
| Non-fatal injuries | 2 |
| Property damage | 1 minibus destroyed; motorway maintenance vehicle damaged; road surface scorched |
On 18 November 1993, just after midnight, a minibus was involved in a collision with a maintenance vehicle on the M40 motorway near Warwick, England.
The minibus was transporting 14 children home to Worcestershire from a school trip to London when it veered into the rear of the motorway maintenance lorry which was stationary on the hard shoulder. Twelve of the 14 children and the driver of the minibus, their teacher, were killed in the crash, one of the worst on the British road network. The two survivors sustained minor injuries.
The driver of the minibus, 35-year-old teacher Eleanor Fry, had driven the 14 children to London during the afternoon of the previous day (Wednesday 17 November), then watched a concert of young musicians with them at the Royal Albert Hall, and was driving back afterward. Fry had driven the eight-year-old vehicle, which had passed its MOT test two weeks prior, several times before both in the United Kingdom and abroad, and was described as a competent and experienced driver by the education officer for Hereford and Worcester.
Shortly after midnight, the vehicle struck a 12.5-ton Bedford motorway maintenance truck parked on the hard shoulder of an unlit stretch of the M40 near junction 15. The truck's safety lights were flashing. The minibus, which was estimated to be travelling at 73 to 84 mph at the time of the collision, exploded shortly after the crash and the bodies of several victims remained trapped in the wreckage.
Fry and ten of the children died on scene. Two other children died later in hospital from their injuries and two who survived the crash recovered from relatively minor injuries. Three men who were in the maintenance lorry were unhurt and pulled seven of the minibus occupants clear of the wreckage. All of the children involved were aged between 12 and 13 and were pupils at Hagley RC High School in Hagley, near Birmingham.
The child victims were:
Holly Caldwell and Bethan O'Doherty survived. A second minibus carrying another group of pupils from Hagley High School who had also attended the London concert passed the crash scene and made it home safely to Worcestershire. Its driver, teacher Bernard Tedd, later told how he had a "feeling of dread" that the crashed vehicle on the hard shoulder was the other minibus, but had decided to continue driving. A Warwickshire Fire Brigade public relations officer said Tedd had "saved those children from witnessing the worst accident any of us has ever seen."
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