school bus trip to alton towers, crashes in Lanarkshire

[PeedOffWithNits]

horrendous weather thought to be a contributing factor

story here

I hope everyone will be OK

I couldn't get that link to open so here is another link

horrible. Lots of questions being asked on the news about why they took the risk in the weather. I guess it's so difficult - making the decision to disappoint the children when trip will have been planned for weeks and they will have been excited.

Hope they'll all be ok.

Have to say bus crashes are my one huge paranoya whenever ds goes off on a school trip

Picture here it looks bad

It's fairly local to me and conditions are bad, I guess it's a touch call whether to go ahead with trips etc. Hope everyone is ok.

I'm amazed the trip went ahead - the weather was dreadful and more snow was forecast so even if they had got to AT in one piece there was no guarantee that the roads would have been ok on the way back.

Bloody stupid to go imo.

It has just said on the news that a 14 year old girl has died

As others have said - why was this trip going ahead in such awful weather conditions?

I work in Lanarkshire and live in the next region - it is dreadful up here, and am currently working from home. DS was ten pin bowling last night with Scouts, about 4 miles away. It took him 3 hours to get home - so I can't help wondering why the school went ahead with this trip. Awful news - so sad

Just heard latest news.

So sad.

I'm in northlanarkshire. Very light snow in my town but dh only works 17 miles away and got stuck in over a foot of it last night- took him over 3 hours to get home.

very sad that a girl has died.

am agreeing with others in that i would not have expected the trip to go ahead, but its a tough one. No teacher or parent would want the moans and whingeing if they cancelled or told their kid they were not going due to weather conditions.

thoughts are with the whole community

I saw this on the news and wondered why it hadn't been cancelled my ds couldn't get to school today the taxi had to turn back the roads where that bad.

One parent didn't think so. She refused to allow her son to go.

She's a driving instructor and also cancelled the lessons she was to take that day. The BBC interviewed her.

Avril - I don't know if you're in Lanarkshire, but the weather there and into the east of Scotland is dreadful. The bus was driving through rural roads early in the morning in heavy snow, and I'm really surprised that anyone thought it was appropriate to travel there at that time.

It's amazing how different it can be just a few miles away- we have no snow at all in Glasgow. Friends at the school gates erecsaying it's horrendous elsewhere. I guess they didn't expect things to be so bad in April. And accidents happen. Feel so sorry for them all.

How tragic.

It's one of those hard calls. What to do?

a) cancel and lose the money already paid to the bus company and Alton Towers (trip cancellation insurance would probably make the trip too expensive to do). Cue very angry parents.
b) cancel and reimburse parents out of meagre school funds.
c) go and all is well, what usually happens.
d) go and something terrible happens in this rare case.

I'd have probably cancelled and taken the flak, having contacted the police for advice on the motoring conditions.

Hindsight .

I saw that parent interviewed on bbc news.

Thing is, fingers will be pointed.

For any school trip there has to be a detailed risk-assessment carried out. Something clearly went wrong with that given it was snowing, heavy wind, and the trip still went ahead.

Anyone can have an accident, but given the adverse weather has been largely to blame for this particular one questions will be asked, and there will need to be some answers.

Very very sad for the girl who has died, and her family.

Very very sorry for your loss.

It's very sad and I agree that it's a very hard call. We're in South Lanarkshire and haven't got any snow at all. You can see it on the hills, but if I'd woken up this morning and seen what I see outside my window, I wouldn't have reaslised how bad it was just down the road.

A member of my family was involved in the accident - his very sensible, loving parents took him to the school to get on the bus. Roads were clear, it wasn't snowing heavily, it didn't seem unsafe. The drifting snow was very localised. According to my relative, the driver was driving slowly and cautiously.

As others have said, it is very early to point fingers and causes additional pain to those who are already hurting in the extreme.

My mum's friend was at the scene (emergency services) and he has said similar DarklyDreaming, that many of the other local roads were fine etc.

I hope your relative is ok.

This is so very sad. My heart goes out to those affected.
The area was under an Extreme weather warning, which are issued very infrequently. I think that things do need to be improved so that schools are aware. I believe that councils are told of these warnings, but I know from experience that it isn't necc passed on to schools.

Awful situation - but it WASN'T 'just hindsight' - one mother had foresight and was also brave enough not to let her son go. I know in that situation I would not be as brave as her - risking flak form disappointed child when all otehrs going but what an excellent role model she is - lucky boy to have a sensible mother who takes the tough decision to protect him, rather than the easy option.

The crash wasn't on the main road, apparently?

A brother of one of the children on the coach posted a comment on the DM site saying it was late setting off, so the driver used a shortcut instead of sticking to the main roads - is that right?

I think the thing to remember as well is that the kids were 17 and 18yrs old and while I know they are still at school, but i know at 18 that if my mum had asked me not to go on a trip due to bad weather I would have reassured her I would be fine and would have gone. I think that would make it tougher for the parents to not let the kids go.

Easier to keep a young child home than an 18 yr old.

It happened on an A road, which had been gritted and was being used by lorries etc.

I believe that the boy whose mother kept him off the trip lives in an outlying area and had contacted friends earlier to say that he was snowed in and couldn't make it to the school.

I say again, the parents of my relative are sensible, and if they had felt that the situation was risky, would not have sent their son. The roads were clear, certainly compared to other times this winter when everyone has had to go about their business as usual.

It was a terrible thing to happen, but trying to apportion blame at this stage, when it's all speculation and hearsay is not helping and is making everyone involved feel worse.

At the meeting today, none of the parents that we spoke to were asking who was to blame and why the bus went. Just the journalists.