Seventeen people were rushed to hospital after an Oxford Tube coach met with a road accident on Saturday night.
The coach overturned as it was leaving the motorway on its way to Oxford from London. No other vehicles appear to have been involved.
Stagecoach, the company that runs the Oxford Tube service, commented, “The coach, which had 34 passengers on board, is understood to have gone through a barrier and ended up on its side.”
Thames Valley police have confirmed that most of the passengers taken to hospital have since been discharged, although two passengers remain in Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital with severe injuries. It is uncertain whether any of the passengers were students.
Stagecoach commented, “safety is our absolute priority. We have operated the Oxford Tube since 1987 and we have never had an incident of this particular nature before. Our immediate thoughts are with those who have been injured in the accident.”
The company has said that it will be carrying out its own internal investigation and assisting the police with their inquiries into the accident.
Police have recovered the vehicle from the scene of the accident and have opened an inquiry into the causes of the incident. It has been suggested that the driver took the wrong exit when leaving the motorway.
The 24 hour London – Oxford Tube service is popular with students. The accident comes in the wake of a collision involving an Oxford varsity ski trip coach on the M25 last week.
