A coach driver has admitted dangerous driving after his vehicle carrying 42 schoolchildren crashed into a ditch off the A10 near Downham Market when he fell asleep at the wheel, Norwich Crown Court heard.
The children from William Westley Primary School, in Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire, were on a school trip to Hunstanton, when the coach operated by Richmond’s of Barley crashed near Hilgay after driver Ross Ogilvie, 23, fell asleep. Martin Ivory, prosecuting, said that Mr Ogilvie accepted he had fallen asleep while driving the Bova Futura coach. Mr Ogilvie, from Royston, admitted dangerous driving on July 22, last year. His case was adjourned for sentence on September 11. However, Judge Katharine Moore warned him: “It is a serious matter.”
The crash closed the A10 at Hilgay for more than six hours. The coach was one of three travelling in a convoy of three taking youngsters for an end-of-term trip to the coast when the crash happened.
