1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash
1975 road accident in the UK
On 27 May 1975, a coach carrying elderly passengers crashed at the bottom of a steep hill at Dibble's Bridge over the River Dibb, near Hebden in North Yorkshire, England. Thirty-three people on board were killed, including the driver, and thirteen others injured. It was the worst-ever road accident in the United Kingdom by number of fatalities.
Accident
The coach, a 1967 Bedford VAM5 run by Riley's Luxury Coaches, was carrying 45 female pensioners on a day trip from Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, to Grassington, in the Yorkshire Dales. The trip was organised by Dorothy White, Lady Mayoress of Thornaby who had previously run several such trips.
While driving on a downhill stretch of the B6265 road between Greenhow and Hebden, stand-in coach driver Roger Marriott, a British Steel Corporation security officer, missed a gear. He then applied the brakes. The brakes had been serviced a week before the crash and had new linings, but as magistrates were later told, "defects" due to improper maintenance "meant there was no braking on the offside rear wheel".
The brakes were insufficient to hold the coach, and it accelerated, heating up the brakes until they eventually failed as the coach travelled down the 1,400-yard (1,300 m), 1:6 (17%, 10°) gradient from Fancarl Top to the bottom of the valley downstream of Grimwith Reservoir. After crashing through a steel crash barrier and a 3-foot (1 m) high stone parapet above the bank of the River Dibb, it landed on its fibreglass roof in the garden of a cottage 17 feet (5 m) below.
The public source identifies “1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash” as 1975 road accident in the UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dibbles, Bridge and coach.
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