National Express seeks to calm coach crash fears

LONDON (Reuters) - Coach company National Express sought to reassure passengers on Tuesday about the safety of travelling on its services after 30 people were injured in a crash on the M1 motorway.

Six of the 30 injured were seriously hurt when a National Express coach overturned at Newport Pagnell service station after it clipped the kerb as it was left the motorway on Monday.

The driver -- cut free from the wreckage and taken to hospital -- was arrested on suspicion of drink driving and dangerous driving, police said following the incident.

Richard Bowker, chief executive of National Express, said the safety of coach travel was "absolutely superb".

"It is so incredibly rare for us to have an incident like this and that in a way is why we're so attune to finding out precisely what happened here," he told BBC radio.

"We do need to reassure passengers -- travelling by coach is far, far safer than travelling by car."

He said National Express was not complacent and would learn any lessons that had to be learnt.

National Express withdrew its fleet of double-decker coaches in January after three people were killed in a crash.

Bowker said all vehicles had passed a "very rigorous series of checks".