Car Driver Dies After School Bus Crash

12 June 2013, 16:17

A 23-year-old woman from Wareham has died after her car collided with a schoolbus on its way to Queen Elizabeth's School in Wimborne.

26 school pupils were hurt in the crash at Horton near Wimborne, just after 8am on Tuesday June 6th.

Dorset County Council and Queen Elizabeth's School released a statement, as follows:

"The school bus involved in the road traffic incident on the B3078 this morning was a Sea View Coaches vehicle carrying 45 Queen Elizabeth's School pupils, aged 14-18, from the Alderholt area.

"Some of the pupils suffered minor injuries – including a one suspected broken nose and one suspected broken wrist – and a total of nine were taken to hospital, either voluntarily or as a precautionary measure.

"A number of parents heard about the incident, and went to collect their children. Two senior staff from the school went to the scene in a minibus to help emergency services manage the situation, and support those students who were due to take exams this morning. Dorset County Council dispatched an additional coach to pick up the remaining students and take them to school.

"Dorset County Council also sent its senior educational psychologist with a team of other counsellors to help the school support students in dealing with the trauma of the incident.

"Andy Puttock, headteacher of Queen Elizabeth's School, said:

'All of the pupils involved in the incident this morning are shocked by what happened. Thankfully, as far as we are aware, none of the children suffered any serious injury. The emergency services were absolutely brilliant -- they arrived on the scene within minutes and dealt with the situation extremely well.

"We will be supporting all the children on a one-to-one basis to provide the necessary counselling and support to help them deal with what had happened.

"We do have exams taking place at the moment. Some pupils from other areas were delayed in arriving at the school because of the incident, but we arranged for them to take their exams slightly later. The pupils involved in the incident who were brought into the school will be assessed on an individual basis to see whether they are in a fit state to take their exams or whether they want to. Special arrangements will be made for any who feel unable to do so."'

"Cllr Toni Coombs, county council Cabinet member for education and communications, went to the Horton Inn when she heard about the incident and then on to the school. She said:"

'I was very concerned for the students and as I live locally I came to see what I could do. The county council is giving all the support it can to the school and its students. Obviously this is a real shock for everyone in the school community so we are offering counselling to anyone who needs it.

"'We'll be working with the police on the investigation into this accident but in the meantime our best wishes for a speedy recovery go to those who have been injured today.'"