UPDATED: Tributes paid to coach driver (From Warrington Guardian)

Coach driver Colin Daulby from Warrington killed in Surrey Bestival crash on A3

7:54am Wednesday 12th September 2012 in News

THE driver of a coach killed as he took festival goers home has been named as  Colin Daulby.

Mr Daulby, from Fearnhead in Warrington, was one of three people killed in a crash on the A3 late on Monday night.

He was driving a group of music fans back from the Bestival event in the Isle of Wight to Merseyside.

He was semi-retired but had been working for the Merseypride Travel coach company for around six months.

The company's boss David Hannell said: "We’re all devastated."

More than 1,000 people joined the Facebook group RIP Colin Daulby in less than 24 hours with plans to buy a floral tribute in the shape of a coach.
Warrington Wolves fan Stephen Hughes, who had been a friend of Colin’s for the last 10 years, said the 63-year-old experienced driver had regularly taken him and friends to games including France in April and Wembley last month.
He said: “He was a happy chappy and his sons were his life.

“My daughter spotted the crashed Merseypride coach on the news was one of the ones that had taken us down to Wembley so I tried calling Colin and text him.

“Then it said on the news the driver had died and he was semi retired and I knew it was Colin.

“I was hoping I would be booking him for the Grand Final.

“It’s gut-wrenching and everyone is gutted.”

The family man took early retirement because his family, including his son Russell and Lee, aged in his early 40s, were his ‘main concern’.

He was divorced but was still friends with his ex wife who lives in Birchwood.

The former Bennetts driver, who also worked for a number of other coach companies, was well known in the town for taking groups to bingo and wearing a blue and primrose jesters hat driving to Warrington games.

Fellow driver Gary Wright described him as a ‘gentleman’ and added he does not believe he could have fallen asleep at the wheel.

As well as the three deaths, Surrey police say 11 people are still in Hospital.

And accident investigators are trying to work out the cause of the crash.

Leave your tributes to Colin below.