Plea after four hurt in bus-car collision

POLICE are appealing for information following a serious road crash involving a school bus carrying three adults and 36 schoolchildren and a car that burst into flames.

It happened on the A9 south of Inverness at 4.45pm on Saturday when the bus and a silver Skoda Octavia driven by a 45-year-old woman was in collision. There were two child passengers, aged nine and seven, in the car.

Emergency services attended the scene and the car driver was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with serious injuries.

The two car passengers and the co-driver driver of the bus, a 48-year-old man, were taken to Raigmore Hospital, also with serious injuries.

The rest of the people involved in the crash, the 64-year-old driver of the bus and the 36 secondary pupils and their teacher, were not seriously hurt and did not require medical treatment.

The northbound and southbound carriageway were closed for some time for investigations to be carried out.

Inspector Greg Dinnie, of the Road Policing Unit, said: “This was a serious crash. Our enquiries into the cause of the collision are continuing and I would urge anyone who saw what happened, and has not yet spoken to officers, to come forward.

“I would also ask motorists who were using the A9 at around 4.45pm and may have been recording via dash-cam devices to check their systems and provide any relevant footage to us as soon as possible.

“The road was closed for approximately 10 hours to allow our crash investigations to be undertaken. I would like to thank the public for their patience whilst this was being carried out.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting incident number 2,981 of June 19.