Children jumped out from smashed window

Witnesses tell of coach carnage | Crash driver's 'medical issues'

- HOLLIE BONE , PAUL BYRNE

WITNESSES last night told of a scene of devastation after a horror motorway school bus crash that claimed two lives.

Jessica Baker, 15, and the driver were killed when the coach flipped over with 58 people on board.

Two others were seriously ill in hospital. Terrified children had been seen jumping from the wreckage as it lay on its side.

One witness tweeted a photo of the bus and wrote: "Coach on the side with school kids escaping from the back window."

The family of the driver last night claimed he had health problems just before the smash.

Naming him as Stephen on a GoFundMe page to pay for his funeral, his sister-in-law said he leaves behind a widow in her 30s and children aged eight and four.

She added: "He died in an accident after suffering medical issues at the wheel while driving students."

Pupils in another coach travelling behind watched the horror unfold in front of them. Local Labour councillor Sherin Akhtar drove past the shattered vehicle just moments after the crash with her 13-year-old daughter.

She said: "There were clearly casualties outside, there were pupils on the floor. My son was in the coach behind."