The Joigny coach crash was a

single-vehicle accident Road traffic collisions generally fall into one of five common types: * Lane departure crashes, which occur when a driver leaves the lane they are in and collide with another vehicle or a roadside object. These include head-on collisions and run- ...

that occurred on the

A6 autoroute The A6, also known as the Autoroute du Soleil, ''Motorway of the Sun'', (along with the A7), is an Autoroute in France, linking Paris to Lyon. The motorway starts at Paris's Porte d'Orléans and Porte d'Italie with two branches, numbered A6a a ...

Joigny Joigny () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yonne Departments of France, department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. It is located on the banks of the river Yonne (river), Yonne. History The current city, originally kno ...

Yonne Yonne () is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the river Yonne, which flows through it, in the country's north-central part. One of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté's eight constituent departments, it is lo ...

, France, on 3 June 1990, when a British-registered double-decker coach crashed. In an attempt to make up for lost time, it was travelling in excess of when a tyre blew out and it crashed, killing 12 passengers. The subsequent court case was subjected to a 13-year delay, becoming one of the lengthiest legal cases in France.

Accident

Montego European Travel, based in Wetley Rocks,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, began business with two buses in April 1990. They were leased to

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in the same direction. With an est ...

-based Pineda Holidays. One of its vehicles, a 76-seat

double-decker coach A bilevel car (American English) or double-decker coach (British English and Canadian English) is a type of rail car that has two levels of passenger accommodation, as opposed to one, increasing passenger capacity (in example cases of up to ...

– containing sixty-nine passengers from the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

between the ages of 9 and 76; six guides; and a driver – was on a return trip to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

from

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of 148,5 ...

with sources stating that it was making its return from

Costa Brava The Costa Brava (, ; "Wild Coast" or "Rough Coast") is a coastal region of Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Whilst sources differ on the exact definition of the Costa Brava, it can be regarded as stretching from the town of Blanes, northeast o ...

, Spain. The coach had passed an inspection in July 1989 and was due for another the following July. Whilst travelling along the main north-south portion of the A6 autoroute, south of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

at 8:00am, the coach's front driver's side tyre suffered a blowout at , over the legal speed limit, as the driver attempted to make up for lost time. The coach crashed into a ditch, flipped over to its side, and slid more than before going through concrete fence posts and stopping in a wheat field. It took four hours to extract passengers trapped in the wreckage. Just prior to the accident, passengers voiced their concern at the coach's excessive speed and erratic movement to a courier, but were ignored.

Casualties

Eleven passengers were killed and 61 injured, 33 of whom were hospitalised overnight. Of those who died, six passengers were from Telford,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, and five from the West Midlands – one from Oldbury, the rest from

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

. A majority of them were sitting in the front of the bus. The victims were between the ages of 10 and 68. The driver, John Johnston from

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

, was seriously injured but survived. A news article in the ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'' claimed that he had been driving for the company for ten days and had been licensed to drive this type of vehicle for over two years. One of the dead, an 18-year-old woman, was 17 weeks pregnant. The tyres were later found to be under-inflated but in good condition. At that time, it was compulsory for all buses built after 1988 to be equipped with

speed limiter A speed limiter is a governor used to limit the top speed of a vehicle. For some classes of vehicles and in some jurisdictions they are a statutory requirement, for some other vehicles the manufacturer provides a non-statutory system which may b ...

s. Those built between 1984 and 1988 were required to have limiters by 1 April 1990; those built between 1974 and 1983 by 1 April 1991. Coaches were not required to have

seat belt A seat belt (also known as a safety belt, or spelled seatbelt) is a vehicle safety device designed to secure the driver or a passenger of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result during a collision or a sudden stop. A seat belt reduc ...

s; at the time their use was opposed by a majority of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. The accident was the worst road accident in France since a 1982

crash Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...

when 53 people, including 44 children, died when their bus caught fire following a

pile-up A multiple vehicle collision (colloquially known as a pile-up, multi-car collision, multi-vehicle collision, or simply a multi) is a road traffic collision involving many vehicles. Generally occurring on high-capacity and high-speed routes such ...

near

Beaune Beaune () is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and the center of Burgundy wine production and business. The annua ...

Legal proceedings

Manslaughter charges were initially brought against John Johnston, the driver of the bus; Melvin Eardley, the owner of Montego European Travel; and Anthony Mitchard, chief executive of

Avon Rubber Avon Protection plc is a British company that specialises in the engineering and manufacturing of respiratory protection equipment for military, law enforcement and fire personnel. Its corporate headquarters are south of Melksham in Wiltshire ...

, which manufactured the tyres. The charges against Mitchard and Eardley were dropped in 2001 and 2002, respectively. After arguments about blame and various legal errors, Johnston was tried in

Sens Sens () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yonne Departments of France, department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France, 120 km from Paris. Sens is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture and the second city of the d ...

in 2003, thirteen years after the accident. Although the prosecutor acknowledged that the delay was "scandalous" and stated that the families of accident victims could seek damages from the French government, the presiding judge rejected defence arguments that the case should be dismissed. Johnston was found guilty of

involuntary manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th c ...

and received a

suspended sentence A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...

of 30 months in prison and a five-year driving ban. Following the rejection of Johnston's appeals in the French courts, a British

inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...

ruled the case an

accidental death An accidental death is an unnatural death that is caused by an accident, such as a slip and fall, traffic collision, or accidental poisoning. Accidental deaths are distinguished from death by natural causes, disease, and from intentional homicide ...

in October 2006. Johnston had died of natural causes the previous August at the age of 68.

Notes

References

External links