Three people dead after coach crash carrying revellers home from Bestival music festival

Three people were killed in the horrific crash which saw a coach fly off the A3 and collide with a tree last night. A fourth person was airlifted out of the scene with ‘life-changing injuries’ and taken to Southampton General Hospital.

The dead passengers were still inside the vehicle this morning. The A3 has been closed in both directions since the accident; it thought it will reopen at midday today.

“We are dealing with a major incident, a tragic major incident,” Surrey Police Inspector Richard Mallett told The Daily Mail “The coach has gone off the road and had a significant impact with a tree, I think that is the best way to describe it.

“As you can imagine it is a very delicate operation to recover the bodies from the coach and are working with our colleagues in the emergency services and the coroner's office.

“With all due respect to them, we need to get them out properly.”

Mallett continued: “We are confident that there is no-one left in the vehicle alive. Our colleagues from the fire and ambulance service with their specialist teams have been through the vehicle. It is a body recovery operation at this point here.

“There are causalities at hospitals along the south coast and towards London and it is a major operation for us.”
The uninjured passengers are believed to have been taken to a rest centre in the area, organised by Waverley Council.