A driver has been found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving after he smashed his double decker coach full of university cheerleaders into the back of a stationary Audi, killing three men.
Horrifying CCTV captured the moment Alan Peters, 78, drove his coach at 61mph along the hard shoulder of the M1 near Flitwick, Bedfordshire, before smashing into the car which was parked with its hazard lights flashing.
Allan Evans, 59, had just finished topping up the oil and was preparing to set off again when Peters ploughed into the back of his vehicle, killing him and his passengers Tom Aldridge, 20, and Nathan Reeves, 23.
Front seat passenger, Jake Dorling, 23, survived the crash, but suffered a fractured skull, fractured hips, four fractured ribs and a punctured lung.
Mr Evans, from north London, had agreed to drive the three friends back home to Milton Keynes for £60 after meeting them outside a club but stopped on the hard shoulder to refill the oil at around 6.40am on Saturday, February 14 last year.
The court heard Peters had 62 passengers on board at the time of the collision, and was travelling along the hard shoulder at approximately 61mph.
The prosecution told the court Peters had been driving on the hard shoulder for almost three minutes prior to the collision despite signs warning it was designated for emergency use only.
He was 'oblivious to the approaching danger' and only 0.4 seconds before impact did he apply his brakes, the court heard, but it was too late for him to take any avoiding action.
Peters, from Gravesend, Kent, had denied causing the death of the three men by dangerous driving and pleaded guilty to causing the deaths by careless driving, but his pleas were not accepted and the case proceeded to trial.
A jury at Luton Crown Court yesterday found him guilty of three counts of causing death by dangerous driving and one count of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
- MailOnline
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