A coach driver from Carluke has admitted causing the deaths of three passengers in a crash near Heathrow Airport.  Phillip Rooney was behind the wheel of a London to Aberdeen double decker which overturned last year. Rescuers described the crash as one of the worst they had encountered.

At 11.45 on the third of January last year the National Express coach overturned on a slip road near Heathrow airport and careered along the ground.

Sixty nine people including the driver and his co-driver were on board, some had to be cut free from the wreckage.  Casualties, many of whom had lost limbs, were taken to six hospitals.

Seventy-six-year-old Christina Toner from Dundee and 30-year-old Yi Di Lin, who was Chinese, died in the crash. Seventy-eight-year-old John Carruthers from Surrey died six months later in hospital.

At the Old Bailey in London today, the coach driver Phillip Rooney from Carluke admitted three charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

He spoke only to answer his name and admit the charges, and the facts of the case were not opened. The driver has suffered post traumatic stress disorder since the crash.

Following the incident, National Express suspended use of the 12 double deck Skyliner coaches that were operating on its network. No safety problems were found and the vehicles were reinstated five months later.

Phillip Rooney will be sentenced next month.