Girl who died in Wirral school bus crash was wearing seatbelt, inquest hears

A teenage girl who died when her school bus crashed on a motorway was one of the few people onboard wearing a seatbelt, an inquest has heard.

Jessica Baker, 15, was dressed for a morning PE class at West Kirby grammar school in Wirral, Merseyside, when the coach crashed on the northbound M53 just after 8am on 29 September last year.

An inquest in Liverpool on Thursday heard that the driver, Stephen Shrimpton, 40, who also died, had heart disease, which caused him to collapse at the wheel.

Jessica’s parents, Sean Baker and Sarah Merrington from Blacon, Chester, who are nurses, were in court for the hearing, which lasted about an hour.

André Rebello, the senior coroner for Liverpool and Wirral, said CCTV showed many children on the bus were “unrestrained” at the time of the crash. Jessica, however, appeared to be sitting in place “not moving in the same way everyone else is moving”.

A postmortem showed bruising consistent with wearing a seatbelt, the inquest heard. “It would be my ruling it is more likely than not that Jessica was wearing a seatbelt at the time of this collision,” Rebello said.

After the inquest was opened in October, he issued a prevention of future deaths report, which raised concerns about the use of seatbelts as CCTV did not show they were being used.

In the report, which was sent to the secretary of state for transport and the secretary of state for education, Rebello said: “A distinction should be drawn between school buses in built-up areas and school commuter coaches travelling a distance using A-roads and the motorway network with regard to the availability and use of seatbelts.”

About 50 pupils, travelling to West Kirby and Calday Grange grammar schools, were on the coach at the time of the crash.

The inquest heard that CCTV showed Shrimpton, who was not wearing a seatbelt, slump to his left side before the vehicle left the motorway. The coach then went up an embankment, hitting a tree, before rolling back on to the hard shoulder of the motorway.

Rebello said a postmortem showed the driver had heart disease, which could have caused an abrupt collapse and sudden death. No inquest was held into Shrimpton’s death as it was owing to natural causes, Rebello said.

He said Jessica’s cause of death was a head injury as he recorded a conclusion of road traffic collision. He told the family: “I know she was very much loved.”

After the crash, four other children were taken to hospital including a 14-year-old boy, whose injuries were said by Merseyside police to be “life-changing.

Others were handled at an emergency training centre, with 13 treated for minor injuries.

Lawyers for the coach company, Carvers Coaches, and a child who was seriously injured in the collision, attended the inquest, along with a lawyer representing Jessica’s family.

After her death, Jessica’s family paid tribute to the talented climber, describing her as a “warm-hearted, wonderful daughter, granddaughter and niece, devoted sister and loyal friend”.