A VICTIM of last year’s Ambleside coach crash which left 43 day-trippers needing hospital treatment said the driver of the defective bus should not have been sent to prison.

President of Cleaswell Women’s Institute Nancy McDonald (pictured) was thrown through the skylight of the coach when it careered off the side of Kirkstone Pass last June and plunged into a garden.

Stressing that she spoke only for herself, the leader of the Northumberland-based group behind the trip said she was “very sorry” that the driver of the coach Frederick Messenger had been jailed for nine months.

Messenger, who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving with defective brakes, was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court last week.

“Right from the beginning I have held nothing against the bus driver,” said Mrs McDonald. “I am very upset about the sentence. There is nothing to be gained by sending him to prison. He has already suffered very badly and I am very sorry that it has come to this.” She added there were “mixed feelings” about the sentence and said there were some people who would be happy to see the driver behind bars.

Mrs McDonald, who was standing at the time of the crash, described the moment the day trip turned to disaster.

“When the bus picked us up we all had a laugh about how ancient it was. It had coughed and struggled up the pass and when it got to the top we all clapped. One or two people muttered ‘we shouldn’t be going this way’ and then it all started to go horribly wrong.

“The bus went over the wall and I shot through one of the skylights and rocketed about 60 feet down the garden. I had scalp wounds and bits of glass in me and a crushed chest. It was all over very, very quickly.” She said there were still some people suffering from the effects of the crash which left several elderly women with broken necks.

“There are around six people still suffering from their injuries who will probably never get over them. I know there are some people who are still traumatised and who suffer from flashbacks.

“But we are a very robust group of ladies. The WI are special people and we have all got up and got on with our lives as much as we could,” she said.