THE Royal Lancaster Infirmary was at the centre of a major incident at the weekend after a coach carrying members of a women's institute left the road and crashed down an embankment

The local hospital saw 26 casualties brought into accident and emergency just after midday on Saturday including one by air ambulance

The coach had been taking a party of 43 people from Stakeford's Women's nstitute in the North East on a tour of the Lakes when it left the road at Ambleside, careered down an embankment and ended up in a garden

Injuries ranged from minor cuts and bruises to serious fractures, broken bones and shock

Of the 26 casualties brought to the RLI there were 15 detained over night

By Monday just six patients were still in hospital all of whom are described as stable and comfortable except one lady who is said to be "poorly." In order to cope with the coach crash the local health trust activated its major incident plan with up to 200 health professionals caring for the injured

Chief Executive of the Trust, Ian Cumming, said: "The Trust's major incident plan operated very smoothly in response to this terrible crash, certainly due in part to the major incident practice that we undertook just two weeks ago

Although fortunately many people suffered relatively minor injuries, the ordeal was clearly extremely traumatic for all involved and the degree of shock that some people on the coach are suffering from cannot be under estimated." He added: "I'm my opinion our staff responded magnificently with well over 200 people involved in ensuring that the injured were cared for as well as possible."