Twelve injured coach crash passengers brought home from Spain last night

Condition of motorway barrier and use of safety-belts causes for concern

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Twelve Finnish tourists who were injured in Saturday’s coach crash were brought home on Monday night.
      The aircraft carrying the injured touched down at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport at around 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
      This leaves thirteen patients still in hospital in Spain, including one woman in a coma in a critical condition.
      Nine Finnish tourists returning from a week’s holiday in Marbella died in the accident, and more than 20 others required hospital treatment.
     
“Some of those who were in a position to travel on this flight chose instead to stay behind to be with relatives still in hospital”, reported Tiina Nikkinen from the Foreign Ministry’s crisis response team.
      The majority of those on the plane were taken by ambulance directly from the airport to hospitals in their home region.
     
The flight also carried a Finnish Red Cross psychologist, Tiina Sjöblom.
      Sjöblom reported that the principal emotions of the injured passengers were ones of disbelief and severe shock over what had happened, and she said that time would tell what sort of traumas the accident would leave among the survivors.
      Also on board was physician Ari Leppäniemi from Helsinki University Central Hospital, who had travelled to Spain after the crash to ascertain the condition of the seriously injured Finnish patients with a view to later repatriation flights.
     
Leppäniemi praised the work of the Spanish medical teams, and said that the only aspect that had troubled the patients was the language barrier that existed between them and the doctors and nursing staff.
      Leppäniemi estimated that 12 of the thirteen remaining patients will require stretchering facilities on their flight home.
      It will be possible to bring them back to Finland in a matter of days, accompanied by medical personnel.
      Leppäniemi noted that the injuries sustained were typical of major accidents such as this, with severe lacerations and bruises, broken limbs and spinal fractures, and some cranial injuries.
     
According to the latest interpretation of what happened on Saturday evening, the driver of the SUV that collided with the bus had not been overtaking “on the inside” as was first thought, but had passed the coach in the outside lane of the three-lane motorway.
      He lost control of the vehicle, struck the central barrier and bounced from this to hit the rear left-hand side of the coach. The bus went out of control, flipped onto its side and struck the central barrier.
     
The deaths and the severity of the injuries were in many cases a direct result of the steel barrier’s breaking and penetrating the side of the coach, slicing it open like a knife.
      Pauli Velhonoja from the Finnish Road Administration commented on Monday that even with an impact of such force, the central barrier should not have broken in this fashion, and it remains to be seen whether the barriers on the A7 motorway between Marbella and Málaga conformed to the strict EU regulations on such things.
      The driver of the SUV was tested for alcohol at the scene and was found to have twice the legal limit in his bloodstream. Spanish police have also reported that he was driving excessively fast at the time of the accident.
      The 27-year-old Spanish man was also injured, and was under police guard in hospital at the weekend.
     
There has also been much discussion here in Finland in the wake of the accident on the use of seat-belts by passengers on long-distance coaches.
      It was said that those wearing a seat-belt in the crash stood a much greater chance of survival than those who were not. However, at least according to a report published by the Central Organization for Traffic Safety in Finland (Liikenneturva) last fall, Finns are very lazy about buckling up when on a coach.
      More than one third of respondents to the Liikenneturva survey said they seldom or never put on a seat-belt when on a coach, even when one was provided.
      This flies directly in the face of legislation introduced in May 2006 that makes it compulsory.

More on this subject:
 Husband identifies critically injured passenger

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Families of nine Málaga coach crash victims formally notified on Sunday night (21.4.2008)
  SUNDAY MORNING 1:40: At least nine Finnish tourists dead in Costa del Sol bus crash (20.4.2008)

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