Award for driver hero of school bus plunge

A HERO delivery driver who rescued school pupils from a fatal bus crash that claimed the life of a teenage girl was honoured for his bravery yesterday.

Nigel Abbott, 39, was first on the scene when the coach crashed near Biggar, Lanarkshire, earlier this year, killing 17-year-old Natasha Paton.

The vehicle smashed through a bridge parapet in blizzard conditions in March and landed on its side in a river ten feet below the road.

Nigel, a lorry driver from Preston, Lancashire, alerted the emergency services and used a rope to pull several of the freezing children from the river embankment and on to the road.

Yesterday, the Scout leader was given a bravery award by Strathclyde Police Chief Constable Stephen House.

He said: "I was returning home after making a delivery that morning and I was about 25ft behind the bus when it went over the bridge. I just acted instinctively and got out the lorry to try to help. I tied a rope to a stump on the bridge and started telling the kids to use it to help them up the embankment."

"I climbed down to get some of the kids who couldn't get up using the rope and got them into the cab of my lorry to give them some warmth.

Mr Abbott was joined at the ceremony by his wife, Kay, and their children, Lily, 11, Luke 9, and Louie, 8.