The widow of a British pensioner killed in a bus crash in the Canary Islands was among 27 passengers taken to hospital, it emerged overnight.
Regional health chiefs said late yesterday the unnamed woman remained in a state hospital, updating earlier figures which suggested 21 casualties had already been discharged. She is now the only patient still being treated there.
The packed tourist bus came off the road on a bend on La Gomera at around 1.15pm before plunging 100ft down a ravine.
A brake failure is thought to have caused the crash, although investigations are ongoing.
Expert psychologists are assisting the British holidaymaker, who is believed to have been sitting beside her partner when the bus careered off the road.
Overnight, two more seriously injured victims were airlifted to a hospital on neighbouring Tenerife, following the earlier transfer of two others.
They include the driver, who tried to stop the vehicle by steering it onto a dirt track after the suspected brake failure. He was among four people seriously hurt.
The bus, operated by La Gomera Tours, is due to be removed today so police can carry out a full off-site inspection as they work to establish the exact cause.
It is the second fatal crash in less than a year on the GM-2 road linking the island’s capital, San Sebastian, with the rest of the mountainous island.
Last May a 73-year-old Spanish woman died and 11 others were injured when a public transport bus overturned on a straight stretch of the road just over a mile away and tumbled down a hill.
The Brits on board yesterday’s crash vehicle, who included three minors, were starting their journey back to the UK after finishing their holidays at a 102-apartment resort in Playa de Santiago on La Gomera’s southernmost tip called El Balcon de Santa Ana.
The hotel manager spent most of yesterday at Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Hospital after agreeing to assist the British consulate.
The whereabouts of the tourists discharged from the island hospital was not immediately clear this morning.
In an update last night a regional government-run emergency response coordination centre, confirming the widow of the 77-year-old Brit killed was among those hurt, said ‘Four people have been transferred to hospitals in Tenerife including the bus driver.
At the request of the British consulate, the hotel manager where the passengers were staying is at the hospital carrying out consular duties.
‘The College of Psychology and the Red Cross have provided psychological care to those affected at the hospital. All have been discharged except the deceased’s wife.
‘The bus is currently shored up in the area, pending removal tomorrow.’
Two of the British passengers who had earlier been airlifted to hospitals in Tenerife following initial assistance at the hospital in La Gomera are a man aged 73 and another aged 42.
Health officials have said they suffered ‘severe multiple injuries.’
The bus driver is a local man believed to be in his fifties who his employers say does the same route virtually every day.
Juan Luis Navarro, the central government’s representative on the island, said he tried to avoid the tragedy by ‘fighting it’ from the moment he detected an apparent brake failure.
He is understood to have veered onto a dirt track after swerving off the road on a sharp bend before bringing the vehicle to a halt at the last moment, although too late to avoid it plunging down the ravine.
Mr Navarro said: ‘Fortunately it stopped before the fall because otherwise this accident could have been much more serious.’
La Gomera Tours, the bus owner and operator, insisted in the aftermath of the tragedy all its vehicles were ‘up to date’ with inspections and it wasn’t aware of any incident or complaint from their drivers regarding that stretch of road.
A representative later told Spanish media the local man at the wheel is an experienced driver who passes the spot where the crash occurred ‘virtually every day.’
Staff at the resort where the Brits had been staying said yesterday afternoon they were on their way to the port in the island capital before taking a ferry to Tenerife.
Later it emerged they were due to head to the airport when they reached the neighbouring island for a flight home.
Tour operator The Holiday Property Bond said in a statement yesterday: ‘The Holiday Property Bond is aware of a serious coach incident on the island of La Gomera in the Canary Islands today involving some of our bondholders and guests. The coach was transferring holidaymakers to the airport, to return home.
‘Our immediate focus is on the safety and wellbeing of everyone affected. We recognise this is an extremely distressing situation for those involved, as well as for their families and loved ones, and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.’
Speaking yesterday afternoon a spokesman for the Civil Guard said: The man who died in the bus crash in La Gomera is a 77-year-old British national.
‘The investigation into the cause of the accident is continuing.’
A local court will coordinate the probe.
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said in a post on X: ‘My thoughts are with those affected by the tragic incident involving a bus carrying British holidaymakers in the Canary Islands.’
Canary Islands president Fernando Clavijo said in the aftermath of the crash: ‘Following the accident of a bus reported in La Gomera and the work of the emergency teams who are intervening at this moment.
‘My support to the victims and their families’
Angel Victor Torres, Minister for Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, said: ‘Tragic news in La Gomera, with the confirmation of one person deceased.
‘Very attentive to the actions in these first moments of the emergency services and the healthcare personnel.
‘With a heavy heart. May there be no more victims.’
