Briton dead, 24 injured in France coach crash

A coach taking 47 British holidaymakers home after a school skiing trip rolled over into a ditch in France on Sunday, killing one passenger and injuring 24, officials said. The British Foreign Office said the dead man was a 61-year-old Briton, adding that it was “urgently investigating” the accident near Reims in northern France. One teenager was said to be in critical condition and two other youngsters and an adult were seriously injured, a local government official said. Twenty-two passengers were treated for shock. The British coach was on a school trip from the central English city of Birmingham and carrying around 29 children and 18 adults in addition to two drivers, the Foreign Office said. “FCO consular officers have been dispatched to the scene to provide assistance to those affected,” it said. The holidaymakers were on their way back from Italy’s popular Valle d’Aosta skiing region when the bus rolled into a ditch, but it is not yet known why it came off the road. It was the only vehicle involved in the crash, which happened around 3:00 am (0200 GMT) on a motorway near Chalone-en-Champagne between Troyes and the port of Calais, causing the road to be partly closed for about four hours. The driver was slightly injured and tested negatively for drink or drugs, local prosecutor Christian de Rocquigny said, adding that he would be detained when he left hospital. It was believed he may have fallen asleep at the wheel.