Man Charged As Victims of Austria Crash Are Named

A mother of three and a teenage girl were yesterday revealed to be among the five British holidaymakers killed in the Austrian coach crash, as the pensioner blamed for Tuesday's accident was charged with causing death by negligence.

The victims, named after forensic scientists worked round the clock to establish their identities, included Clare Patel, 39, whose husband, Dave, and three children, two girls and a boy, remain in hospital.

Doctors attempted to resuscitate Mrs Patel, from Amersham in Buckinghamshire, after the crash, but they were unable to save her.

The youngest victim was Rebecca Earland, 16, from Tonbridge in Kent, who had been on holiday with her father, Geoff, a firefighter, mother Celia and younger brother Nathan, all of whom are still in hospital.

Also among the dead was David Hamilton, 33, an electronics instrumentation engineer from Bournemouth, who was on holiday with his girlfriend.

The other two victims were named as Marian Ashby, 80, and her son Robert, 60, from Hatfield in Hertfordshire.

Klaus Aigner, who headed the rescue operation, said 29 people were still in hospital -four in intensive care - and 13 had been discharged.

A police spokesman said a report into the crash would be passed to the public prosecutor's office, which would decide how the case should proceed against the driver of the minibus, Johann Prettenthaler, 70, who tried to overtake the coach when a car was coming in the other direction, forcing it off the road.

Earlier, Johann Huber, a local government representative who had spoken to the pensioner, said: "He told me he did not see the car coming towards him."

Alois Karlbauer, head of Salzburg's emergency hospital, the Unfallkrankenhaus, said Mrs Patel's husband, who underwent surgery yesterday for severe burns on his leg, was coping with great "dignity".

He had been hoping to tell his three teenage children the news of their mother's death in person, but they found out from psychologists in another hospital where they were be ing treated. The children's grandparents were comforting them and it was hoped they would be transferred to the same hospital as Mr Patel.

David Hamilton's brother, Stewart, said yesterday that David and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Cullen, 26, had booked their two-week break at the last minute.

"Liz and David worked hard but they also played hard. They never had any plans to get married. They were happy as they were," he said.

Ms Cullen, who had known Mr Hamilton, a businessman, for 12 years, suffered elbow and knee injuries.

A spokeswoman for Kent fire and rescue service confirmed that a senior officer had been seriously injured in the crash. "Divisional officer Earland, 48, has been with the Kent fire and rescue service for 30 years. Tragically, Geoff's daughter Rebecca was killed in the accident and his wife is in a critical condition. His son Nathan was also involved in the accident," she said.

A ceremony will be held today in Hallein, the nearest town to the site of the crash, which relatives of the victims are expected to attend. It will start at 2pm and Roman Catholic and Protestant clergymen will be present.

An Irishman was killed and two Britons were among 37 travellers hurt when a double-decker bus plunged 60ft into a gorge in the Andes. David Scollard, 21, from Limerick, was killed when the bus went off the road in Urcos, about 28 miles south-east of Cuzco.