Baroness relive tour bus crash in Bath

The guitarist of an American rock band who tour bus plunged down a viaduct has been reliving the moment they crashed.

Baroness band member John Baizley was on board the German-registered coach when it crashed through a safety barrier in torrential rain and fell 30ft on August 15 on the A36 near Bath.

Baizley suffered a badly broken arm and leg when he was thrown into the windscreen of the coach. 

The band, from Savannah in Georgia, were on the British leg of their European tour travelling from Bristol to a gig in Southampton. 

The coach, carrying nine people, left the road at the junction of Brassknocker Hill at around 11.30am. 

Baizley said: 

`The brakes in our bus failed completely on an incredibly steep, 12%-grade hill in Monkton Combe. 

`Our bus went entirely out of control, and we had no choice other than hitting a perpendicular guardrail going about 50mph at the bottom of the hill. 

`The guardrail and the 20 or 30 trees we ploughed through snapped like matchsticks as we went fully airborne and fell down more than 30 feet off of a viaduct to the ground below. 

`I was up front with our driver and I bore witness to the entire thing. Once our brakes failed, the bus could do little more than gain momentum and plummet down the hill. 

`There was nothing anyone on the bus could have done during our descent to avoid the crash, and no one, the local residents, the police or any of us can believe we survived the impact.''

`I remember the sounds of confusion from behind me as our collective terror rose. I remember seeing the guardrail split, then a cluster of trees smacking against the front windshield. 

'The support of our fans, our friends and our families has real meaning to me now. I say that now honestly, without false humility. Thank you. Everyone. 

'I was hospitalised for two weeks, following an eight-hour surgery in which my arm was rebuilt with the aid of two massive titanium plates, 20 screws and a foot-and-a-half of wire. 

'I have just this past week returned back to the US and my home, where I am wheelchair-bound for another several weeks of physical therapy, learning to use my arm and leg again.

'This accident has inflicted an injury which has left its mark on the band: physically, mentally and spiritually. 

'We cannot allow this accident, which I believe is unrelated to the band or our music, to slow down or stifle what has become so much more than a passionate hobby for the four of us. 

'I can say, after nearly six weeks of reflection, that I feel more resolute and passionate about our music than ever.'

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