Bus Bedford Duple Date 27 May 1975 Injuries 13 | Vehicles 1 Total number of deaths 32 Location North Yorkshire | |
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The Dibble's Bridge coach crash was a fatal accident that occurred on 27 May 1975 on the B6265 road, Dibble's Bridge, below Grimwith Reservoir 1.6 miles (2.6 km) east of Hebden, in the civil parish of Hartlington in Craven, North Yorkshire, England. Thirty-one elderly passengers and the driver were killed, and thirteen others injured. It is the worst-ever road accident in the United Kingdom by number of people killed.
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Accident
The accident occurred when a coach run by Riley's Luxury Coaches carrying pensioners from Thornaby-on-Tees was heading for tea in Grassington. Whilst travelling between Greenhow and Hebden stand-in coach driver Roger Marriott, a British Steel Corporation security officer, missed a gear on the moorland road. The driver then applied the brakes. The brakes had been serviced a week before the crash and had new linings but, as magistrates were later told, due to improper maintenance "the defects meant there was no braking on the offside rear wheel". The brakes were insufficient to hold the coach and it accelerated, heating the brakes up until they eventually failed as the coach travelled down the 1,400-yard (1,300 m) 1:6 (9.5°) (16.67%) gradient from Fancarl Top to the bottom of the valley downstream of Grimwith reservoir. After crashing through a steel crash barrier and a 3-foot (0.91 m) high stone parapet above the bank of the River Dibb it landed on its fibreglass roof in a garden 17 feet (5.2 m) below. The aluminium sides of the coach then buckled on impact with the ground. The son-in-law of the cottage owners, London barrister (now painter and sculptor) Lincoln Seligman, was having a barbecue in the garden at the time and was first on the scene. He later gave an eyewitness account to the Teesside Evening Gazette: "There were screams. I dragged some people out....I don't know how many".
Inquest
An inquest at Skipton Town Hall, in July 1975, recorded a verdict of accidental death on the victims. Jury foreman John Mitchell said the accident was caused by the inability of the driver to negotiate the bend, owing to deficient brakes on the coach, due to possible lack of care in the maintenance of the braking system. The pathologist reported that the main cause of the loss of life was the crushing of the victims between the seats. The proprietor of the coach company was later fined £75 (equivalent to £567 in 2015) for running a motor vehicle with defective brakes.
Aftermath
Even before the crash there had been a campaign to have electro-magnetic retarders fitted to all coaches. An electro-magnetic retarder uses the rotation of the axle to generate electricity, the energy for which has to come from the movement of the axle. Using such a retarder means that the frictional brakes are kept cool for use at slow speeds. A local newspaper, the Yorkshire Post, staged a trial two weeks later: a coach which had been fitted with the retarder was put out of gear and allowed to run away down the hill without braking and the retarder kept the coach's speed within safe limits. The Dibbles Bridge crash brought the issue to a wider public and ultimately legislation required improved braking systems.
A memorial service was held at St Paul's Church, Thornaby, in May 2015 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the crash, when a memorial plaque was unveiled listing the names of those who died.