The devastated family of a teenage ski instructor who suffered 80 per cent burns in a coach crash in the French Alps said today she was in a “very critical condition” and had returned to the UK for treatment.
Catrin Pugh was one of four young people seriously injured when a coach, returning to the UK carrying British seasonal ski workers, crashed into the side of a mountain on a notorious twisting descent from the Alpe D’Huez resort.
The driver Maurice Wrightson, 63, died in the horrific accident, and has been hailed a hero for swerving the vehicle into the side of the mountain.
Last week Miss Pugh, from Wrexham, who was the most severely injured of the 53 passengers, was put into a medically induced coma.
Today, her father, Anthony Pugh, said: “We flew her back on Saturday and she is in hospital in Liverpool. She is very critically ill. We are just devastated, it is very difficult time.”
It is believed Miss Pugh was sitting at the front of the bus when it stuck the side of the mountain just before 2pm local time last Monday.
The other three injured passengers, Ed Billen, 23, from Leyton, Matthew Beauchamp, 19, from Bristol and an unnamed 23-year-old woman who is believed to have broken her wrists have all returned to the UK.
