A British woman who survived a bus crash in Spain which killed 13 people at the weekend has described how she was trapped inside the vehicle for two hours before being rescued.
Tallulah Lyons, 19, a second year University of Southampton student, was one of dozens of people injured when the bus crashed at 6am on 20 March while returning from the country’s largest fireworks festival. Most of the 57 passengers were students on the Erasmus programme,
Ms Lyons, who is in Spain for a semester of her English Literature degree, told relatives on Facebook she suffered several broken bones.
“Some of you may have seen the news about the coach accident in Spain this morning and unfortunately I was involved in this incident,” she wrote. “But I’m alive and well with just three broken vertebrae and a broken chest bone but I will make a full recovery. Thanks for your messages and kind words.”
Television images showed the bus also crashed into an oncoming car on the opposite side of the road. Seven of those killed in the crash were from Italy while the rest of the victims, all aged between 19 and 25 years old, were made up of two Germans, one Austrian, one French woman, a Romanian and a woman from Uzbekistan, a Spanish official said.
Two Irish students were also injured while on their way back from the renowned Fallas fireworks festival in Valencia when the coach hit the barriers of the AP7 highway near Freginals, halfway between Valencia and Barcelona.
Ms Lyons told the BBC: “I just remember waking up and people were on the floor. I was trying to crawl out with friends - and that’s when we realised some people were trapped. It took about two hours to get everyone out.”
Spanish officials said the driver passed alcohol and drug tests after he was held at a police station.
