A coach driver that left university students sobbing in the 'journey from hell' down a motorway has been sacked.
Veterinary students at Bristol University claim the driver used his phone at the wheel for large parts of the nightmare seven hour trip.
They say the coach was dodging cars and swerving between lanes, and claim they could have 'dropped out' of an open door while they sped along the M4.
Coach company Sparrow Travel "very much apologises" to the students.
Students abandoned the coach at services
Student vet Francesca Corbett said dozens of her fellow fifth-year students at the top Russell Group university were 'reduced to tears' in the journey in June.
She said some students felt so unsafe that they abandoned the coach at Reading Services and paid nearly £200 for a 100-mile taxi home.
The undergraduates pictured the driver allegedly using his phone for directions while he took them to Gatwick Airport from Somerset.
When the 52-seater coach turned up at Gatwick to take the students home with the same driver, the 'journey from hell' began, the vets in training say.
Following the ordeal the driver has now been sacked, although Sparrow Travel insists that a driver's conduct is the individual's responsibility, not theirs.
A spokesman told Somerset Live: "The driver in question was a new driver which we took on as a self-employed driver with good work references from previous companies.
"He drove on both journeys and on the way there we had no contact from customers to say there were any issues.
"On the return journey, they state the vehicle door was open which is impossible as it has a safety device to not allow it to be driven.
"When the driver takes the vehicle out on the road we cannot control what he is doing and using a mobile phone is against the law. We cannot control this, we can only act on it after the event and we did act on this as we sacked the driver.
"But how can we be publicly blamed when all drivers are responsible for their own actions as we cannot watch and control them when they go out on the road?"
Sparrow Travel added that following the incident they will now make changes to their hiring policy and hold spot checks on drivers.
