Pat Hasler:
Looking at photos on the lap top later it was clear that the lorry rear ended the bus.
The driver of the lorry was arrested on the scene.
Death by dangerous driving surely.
Certainly the truck rear-ended the mini-coach.
But what if the mini-coach driver realised at the last minute that he/she was
wrongly on the exit slip road, rather than the main carriageway to Liverpool,
then suddenly and unexpectantly cut into the path of the truck ?
The possibilities are both endless and interesting.
The coach had the most damage to the rear right and the truck to the left front which sugests the truck left it late and moved over on the coach.
What do you mean? Left it late for what?
I’m guessing that he’s saying that the truck driver was in lane 1 approaching the mini bus and the truck driver had allowed the seperation distance to close down too much before moving out into lane 2 to overtake and clipped the rear offside of the mini bus with the front nearside of the truck before completing the lane change.Or possibly he’s saying that the mini bus had actually stopped in lane 1 for some reason with similar results.If either of those scenarios were really the case,or for that matter any other for which he’d have been to blame,I think the truck driver would probably just have admitted the mistake to the law and he’d have then been charged with the offence that he’s been arrested for considering the circumstances.
Pat Hasler:
Looking at photos on the lap top later it was clear that the lorry rear ended the bus.
The driver of the lorry was arrested on the scene.
Death by dangerous driving surely.
Certainly the truck rear-ended the mini-coach.
But what if the mini-coach driver realised at the last minute that he/she was
wrongly on the exit slip road, rather than the main carriageway to Liverpool,
then suddenly and unexpectantly cut into the path of the truck ?
The possibilities are both endless and interesting.
The coach had the most damage to the rear right and the truck to the left front which sugests the truck left it late and moved over on the coach.
What do you mean? Left it late for what?
I’m guessing that he’s saying that the truck driver was in lane 1 approaching the mini bus and the truck driver had allowed the seperation distance to close down too much before moving out into lane 2 to overtake and clipped the rear offside of the mini bus with the front nearside of the truck before completing the lane change .If that was really the case I think the truck driver would probably just have admitted the mistake to the law and he’d have then been charged with the offence that he’s been arrested for considering the circumstances.
So what we implying here, the mini bus was stationary in lane 1?
Pat Hasler:
Looking at photos on the lap top later it was clear that the lorry rear ended the bus.
The driver of the lorry was arrested on the scene.
Death by dangerous driving surely.
Certainly the truck rear-ended the mini-coach.
But what if the mini-coach driver realised at the last minute that he/she was
wrongly on the exit slip road, rather than the main carriageway to Liverpool,
then suddenly and unexpectantly cut into the path of the truck ?
The possibilities are both endless and interesting.
The coach had the most damage to the rear right and the truck to the left front which sugests the truck left it late and moved over on the coach.
What do you mean? Left it late for what?
I’m guessing that he’s saying that the truck driver was in lane 1 approaching the mini bus and the truck driver had allowed the seperation distance to close down too much before moving out into lane 2 to overtake and clipped the rear offside of the mini bus with the front nearside of the truck before completing the lane change .If that was really the case I think the truck driver would probably just have admitted the mistake to the law and he’d have then been charged with the offence that he’s been arrested for considering the circumstances.
So what we implying here, the mini bus was stationary in lane 1?
Running very slowly at the most considering the speed differential which would have been needed to cause that amount of damage.Whatever happened it seems obvious that the truck driver was in lane 2 before the impact to some degree.Which raises the question as to the reason for the large speed differential considering the truck is obviously limited to 90 kmh at most and the reaons as to how and why the truck and the mini bus came into conflict with each other with the involvement of lanes 1 and 2.Maybe Pat Hasler can explain his reasons.
the mini bus must have been going very slow or stopped to receive that amount of damage to the rear end and for the lorry to receive so much damage must have hit with force
not speculating to many possibilitys as to why or how this happened but over the years have seen similar damage when vehicles have pulled off the hard shoulder into a live lane without gaining speed
xamtex:
well everyone seems to have missed the obvious answer??..the minibus driver missed his turn and then reversed up the motorway into the oncoming truck?
No more like the mini bus driver ‘might’ have ‘possibly’ been in the wrong lane heading for the motorway exit slip road having missed or misunderstood the first signs,which differentiate the continuing 3 lanes of the motorway,from the seperate lane leading to the exit slip road,and then realised too late having seen the repeat signs.Which of course were put too close to the start of the exit slip road instead of further back where there would have been time to act on them.It’s obvious that making the mistake of trying to rejoin the motorway at that point ‘could’ ‘possibly’ lead to exactly the type of scenario which would match the circumstances of the accident in this case.
The fact that the truck driver doesn’t seem to have admitted to running into the mini bus by mistake on his part seems to confirm the possibility that the truck driver didn’t run into the mini bus owing to such a mistake on his part.
xamtex:
well everyone seems to have missed the obvious answer??..the minibus driver missed his turn and then reversed up the motorway into the oncoming truck?
This had gone through my mind but decided to bite my tongue/keyboard, as I thought it might be unpopular.
The last place I worked one of ours ploughed into a stationary 7.5t on a dual carriageway, at near full pelt. The 7.5t driver basically didn’t have his foot on the brake or had set the parking brake and the impact shunted the truck forward a good way but the cab on ours wasn’t knocked off its mounts the way this one seems to have been.
One thing that is going through my mind is that junction. I’ve lost count how many times people have been in the left lane for the slip road, then realsied that they should be on the m62 and pulled out.
Maybe there’s an answer as to why the lorry was where it was?
As soon as someone posted the google maps street view, I could picture the amount of near misses i’ve seen at that very junction.
I bet the parents are going through hell. I can’t stop thinking about my daughter, She’s only a couple of years older than these girls.
The minibus low speed could have the result of a shock wave from traffic slowing in front almost to or even maybe to a standstill… Traffic moves off but the minibus due to being heavily loaded is slow to get going and the truck misjudging the speed of the minibus realises too late tries to avoid but smacks the back of bus.
Apparently there are more crashes on motorways in good weather than in bad because people pay less attention because conditions are good whereas in awfull conditions they realise the dangers.
Jamieg:
The minibus low speed could have the result of a shock wave from traffic slowing in front almost to or even maybe to a standstill… Traffic moves off but the minibus due to being heavily loaded is slow to get going and the truck misjudging the speed of the minibus realises too late tries to avoid but smacks the back of bus.
Apparently there are more crashes on motorways in good weather than in bad because people pay less attention because conditions are good whereas in awfull conditions they realise the dangers.
How about the mini bus was on hard shoulder set off but was not going fast enough to get back onto m62 before slip road for j32 so pulled out in front of truck.Truck driver could go no were …Hence back right of mini bus damaged and front left of truck damaged.RIP Beth Jones and speedy recovery for rest of hen party.
merc0447:
Its just a sin the lassie was so young, whole life ahead of her now gone
Something I’m sure despite all of our opinions, is the main thing here. Her family must be devastated.
Our local papers, the Pontefract and Castleford Express, the Wakefield Express, etc, will probably carry the story next Friday with more facts as they are revealed.
RIP young lady. (Only a year older than my youngest.)
Big Rig F16:
How about the mini bus was on hard shoulder set off but was not going fast enough to get back onto m62 before slip road for j32 so pulled out in front of truck.Truck driver could go no were …Hence back right of mini bus damaged and front left of truck damaged.RIP Beth Jones and speedy recovery for rest of hen party.
Very interesting 1st post Not your normal introductory type, do you know something no one else does
Own Account Driver:
At the last place I worked, one of ours ploughed into a stationary 7.5T on a dual carriageway at near full pelt.
The impact shunted the 7.5T forward a good way but the cab on ours wasn’t knocked off its mounts the way this one seems to have been.
I agree - and the Farmfoods truck would have looked worse if it was a non-fridge trailer.
Also, I can only assume that the Farmfoods trailer was empty. He had loaded earlier that
day in Warrington and was heading back in that direction (Westbound). The casualty count was horrendous as it was - God only knows what the outcome would have been
had he been fully loaded to 44 Tonnes.
.
.
.
So, in summary then, the coach driver was driving normal speed, slowing down, driving very slow, stopped, reversing, moving off the hard shoulder across lanes, swerving from inside to outside, outside to inside generally causing the accident. Sorry if I’ve missed any, there are quite a few now. Meanwhile the trucker did nothing wrong as he held his line doing, at most 90kph as that’s what we are limited to,yet he got arrested.
One thing I do know is that eventually someone will come up with what actually did happen allowing one of you to say, “told you so”, but as I’m skint I won’t be betting on that.
Slackbladder:
So, in summary then, the coach driver was driving at normal speed, slowing down, driving very slow, stopped, reversing, moving off the hard shoulder across lanes, swerving from inside to outside, outside to inside generally causing the accident.
3300John:
Hiya …don’t think the truck would have been 44 tons fully loaded…
look how many axles there are.
John
Hiya . . . To be honest John, I can’t see the number of axles too clearly but
I’m willing to concede that his Maximum Allowable Mass may be somewhat lower
than that which I anticipated !
Signage: in case you’ve never noticed ALL m/way direction signs are blue. That is to confirm that you are traveling on a w/way. They’re not blue for M/way, green for A road & pink for Bob’s uncle’s place. However I totally agree it may improve clarity if A road signs were green. On the other hand, nearly every m/way exit is to an A or B road. To change signage colour would, if I’m not mistaken, require a change in the law.
Gantry location too late: Firstly you shouldn’t be acting on the information on that sign when you’re underneath it, but some distance before. That gantry is the confirmation sign, there being 2 others further back. The first at 1/2 mile as soon as you leave the fancy new Ferrybridge road layout. The dotted lane separation line also begins there. The second here well before the left lane splits off:
(how do I get that to link to the actual view as others have done above rather than just a link?)
Not saying it contributed but a driver carrying 20 mostly young attractive women all in very high spirits could have had concentration issues.
Very, very sad event this. Given the seriousness of the accident I’m sure the road layout will be looked at if its found to be a contributory factory. If you have witnessed near do’s there in the past it might be an idea to phone the Highways Agency and tell them what you saw.
Pat Hasler:
Looking at photos on the lap top later it was clear that the lorry rear ended the bus.
The driver of the lorry was arrested on the scene.
Death by dangerous driving surely.
Certainly the truck rear-ended the mini-coach.
But what if the mini-coach driver realised at the last minute that he/she was
wrongly on the exit slip road, rather than the main carriageway to Liverpool,
then suddenly and unexpectantly cut into the path of the truck ?
The possibilities are both endless and interesting.
The coach had the most damage to the rear right and the truck to the left front which sugests the truck left it late and moved over on the coach.
What do you mean? Left it late for what?
I’m guessing that he’s saying that the truck driver was in lane 1 approaching the mini bus and the truck driver had allowed the seperation distance to close down too much before moving out into lane 2 to overtake and clipped the rear offside of the mini bus with the front nearside of the truck before completing the lane change .If that was really the case I think the truck driver would probably just have admitted the mistake to the law and he’d have then been charged with the offence that he’s been arrested for considering the circumstances.
So what we implying here, the mini bus was stationary in lane 1?
Running very slowly at the most considering the speed differential which would have been needed to cause that amount of damage.Whatever happened it seems obvious that the truck driver was in lane 2 before the impact to some degree.Which raises the question as to the reason for the large speed differential considering the truck is obviously limited to 90 kmh at most and the reaons as to how and why the truck and the mini bus came into conflict with each other with the involvement of lanes 1 and 2.Maybe Pat Hasler can explain his reasons.
Yep, whatever happened, a massive difference in speed is a certainty.
I just hope all the final details are released but as ive said before, the full investigation on fatals like this are never usually released are they? They are reported but i mean i want to see a full thorough investigation made public like the same one that is presented in front of the coroner.
.If that was really the case I think the truck driver would probably just have admitted the mistake to the law and he’d have then been charged with the offence that he’s been arrested for considering the circumstances. 
Not your normal introductory type, do you know something no one else does 
