A Brief History
On May 27, 1975, a bus carrying 45 elderly women crashed in North Yorkshire, England at Dibble’s Bridge, resulting in the driver and 32 passengers killed and the other 13 occupants injured. The accident was the worst motor vehicle accident in British history by number of fatalities.
Digging Deeper
The bus, called a coach in England, was a 1967 Bedford VAM5 taking the ladies on a day trip. The driver was a substitute, and apparently the recently changed brakes had an issue that resulted in the bus being unable to slow down going downhill, causing the vehicle to speed down a hill unchecked, crashing through a steel barrier and stone wall at the bottom, flipping upside down, and falling 17 feet.
The fiberglass roof and aluminum sides of the bus were unable to support the weight of the coach, which crumpled and crushed, smashing many of the occupants. The coach company was fined the equivalent of about $1,000 and a law to improve bus brakes was passed.
Question for students (and subscribers): Have you ever been in a bus accident? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Furness, Nigel. Bedford Buses and Coaches. The Crowood Press, 2016.
Legge, Jerome. Traffic Safety Reform in the United States and Great Britain. Univ of Pittsburgh Press, 1991.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Secret Coach Park, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.