Justice at last for injured Seaton man

A SEATON man is due to receive compensation after a coach he was travelling on in Bulgaria crashed, over five years ago.

Ronald Nethersole, 42, along with 23 other passengers, has successfully sued the travel agent who provided the package holiday.

Crystal/TUI UK Limited was forced to accept liability after a three day trial in Birmingham.

And the tourists could receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation after the judge ruled the crash was caused by driver errors.

Mr Nethersole, who sustained a neck injury, said: "I am relieved that this is all over and that there has been a successful outcome.

"I and the other passengers on the coach have had to wait almost five years for answers and it is such a relief to know now that the driver was to blame for this accident."

The holidaymakers had been on the way from the airport to the ski resort of Borovets on January 30, 2005, when the coach they were travelling in left the road, drove down a bank and overturned.

Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, who represented the tourists, say that lessons of safety must be learnt by tour operators.

Philip Banks, a travel law specialist with Irwin Mitchell, said he was delighted with the outcome, but disappointed Cyrstal/TUI had denied liability.

He said: "In the light of so many previous coach crashes over the last decade, we have repeatedly called for stricter safety measures for coach travel to protect British and foreign tourists.