Barcelona crash victim blames “erratic” driver for horror smash that injured 24 people
A BRITISH holidaymaker has spoken of her horror after being injured in a coach crash which she blames on the driver for going too fast in stormy weather.
Molly-Louise Walsh, 22, from London, claims everyone on board could have been killed and has described how passengers were “covered in glass and blood” after the bus heading to Barcelona’s El Prat Airport overturned on a ring road during heavy rain.
The incident, which left 24 passengers hurt, including seven British and two Irish tourists, happened near the airport just after 3am on Wednesday.
Ms Walsh, who suffered injuries to her legs, and her fiancée Molly Victoria Boudier, 24, who sustained a broken jaw, are now back home seeking further hospital treatment.
Ms Walsh, an estate agent, said the driver’s “recklessness” during the downpour is to blame.
She said: “The driver lost control of the bus because of the speed he was going at. He could have killed us all."
The couple, who were sitting on the back seat when the coach overturned, described the journey up until the crash as "uncomfortable".
"Weather conditions were so bad that the visibility on the road was extremely poor," Ms Walsh recalled. "So poor in fact that being a driver myself, I would have thought the coach driver would have slowed down or pulled over.”
Ms Walsh noted the roads, which were empty because it was the early hours of the morning, were unlit.
"It was pitch black outside. The only light outside was coming from the flash lightning which was reflecting off the sea and flashing in front of the bus.
";The rain was coming down so strongly that the windscreen wipers couldn’t beat the rain away quick enough.
"I remember looking down the aisle worrying and wondering how the driver could see anything when I couldn’t see the road ahead and couldn’t see anything out of the window."
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She added: "We were so frightened we really started to panic. My partner even joked and said that the coach journey is going to be worse than the flight [back to England].
“The driver had been driving so erratically during the storm that I thought he was just changing lanes very quickly.
“It wasn’t until we heard a woman scream at the front of the coach that we knew something was really wrong.
“The coach had skidded from the middle lane to the left, the driver then tried to steer the bus back to control but with the speed he was going and the speed we were skidding it was too late.
“With my fiancée being next to the window, she remembers looking out and seeing the bus skidding to the side, toward the metal barriers.”
Describing the aftermath of the crash, Ms Walsh said: “People were screaming on the bus. I looked down to the front of the bus to see people on the floor, trapped under the chairs and hanging from different angles.
“Everyone was screaming. There was a really strong smell of gas in the air so I was panicking for us both to get out.”
Ms Walsh and Ms Boudier managed to scramble to safety through a smashed window to get help for other passengers, some of whom were trapped for more than 30 minutes.
“We were covered in glass and blood,” Ms Walsh said. “But were thankful to be alive and out of the coach.”
Ms Walsh said although the weather was treacherous and visibility was extremely poor, the driver “had a duty of care to get everyone to the airport safely, which he failed to do”.
She added: “With the way he was driving I do think he was the reason we crashed. “Regardless of whether he was within the speed limit, if he hadn’t been driving that fast and slowed down we wouldn’t have skidded at all.”
According to an emergency services spokesman, the driver who was also hurt, was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
His coach firm reportedly told investigators he wasn’t going too fast and are said to have passed them a tachograph reading to prove it.
Four Lithuanians, three Belarusians, two Germans, five Spaniards and a Polish national were also travelling on the bus.
The most seriously injured passengers were trapped under the bus when it overturned and had to be freed by firefighters.
Fifteen sustained minor injuries, while six were said to be in moderate condition.
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