Double-decker coach flips over on motorway after passenger grabs steering wheel

A double-decker coach flipped over and spun off the motorway as the driver battled with a passenger who had allegedly grabbed the steering wheel. Two people were injured when the Oxford Tube service - with 12 passengers on board – veered across the hard shoulder and up an embankment

The 21-year-old attacker, who witnesses said was drunk and tried to grab the wheel, fled the scene of the crash. A man was later tracked down by a police helicopter and arrested. The 48-year-old driver has been hailed as a hero for struggling with the assailant to keep the coach under control, despite suffering a shoulder injury during the attack.



Passengers clambered out of the vehicle through hatches in the roof after it came to rest up the grassy embankment shortly before 2am on Monday morning. Emergency services were called but all 12 passengers and the driver had managed to free themselves from the wreckage by the time they arrived at the scene, on the M40 motorway between Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross, Bucks.

One man was taken to hospital with suspected spinal injuries. Police closed two lanes of the motorway for nine hours while they carried out their investigation. A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: "One man was arrested from near the scene and he is still in custody. He was arrested on suspicion of assault and criminal damage."