Dibbles Bridge coach crash: Memorial unveiled to 1975 accident

Thornaby mayor Steve Walmsley unveiled the memorial at a service marking the 47th anniversary of the crash

A memorial to 33 people killed in one of Britain's worst coach crashes has been officially unveiled.

On 27 May 1975, a bus carrying day-trippers from Thornaby fell 16ft (5m) off Dibbles Bridge in North Yorkshire after its brakes failed travelling down a bank.

All but 13 of the passengers, all of whom were women, were killed.

The stone used for the memorial, which stands outside Thornaby Town Hall, came from a North Yorkshire quarry.

Thornaby mayor Steve Walmsley has described it as a more substantial tribute than the existing plaque in the town centre, which he said "didn't reflect the enormity" of the tragedy.

The trip to the Yorkshire Dales had been organised by Thornaby's lady mayoress, Dorothy White, 62, who died in the crash.

The Bedford coach careered down a steep bank on the road from Pateley Bridge to Grassington and hurtled through the parapet of Dibbles Bridge, landing on its roof.

The driver, Roger Marriott, also died.

The vehicle's brakes failed as it travelled down a steep bank and it then careered off a bridge

Steven Griffin, from Hull, had stopped off in the area with two friends to go camping and saw what happened as they were pitching their tent.

He said he remembered everything appeared to happen in "slow motion".

"I think it was shock that made it sound and look like it did," he told BBC Radio Humberside.

"We ran down to help. When we first went down there it was quiet but then people started to come round and started to shout for help.

"The memorial is going to give the families and the people in Thornaby a place to remember those who lost their lives in that tragic accident."