Elderly passengers injured in the Christmas Eve coach crash on the outskirts of Norwich have today told of the terrifying moment the vehicle veered off the road and flipped onto its side.

A major incident was declared at about 3.40pm on Friday when the coach, carrying 48 elderly passengers and the driver, came off the road on the A140 Cromer Road near to Norwich International Airport.

Following the crash, 19 of those on board were taken to hospital, eight of them suffering from serious injuries. Fortunately none of the injuries were life-threatening with police saying the fact that many of the passengers were wearing seat-belts prevented the consequences from being much worse.

Five of the passengers remained in hospital last night receiving treatment for their injuries.

Speaking exclusively to the EDP from her hospital bed, great, great-grandmother Marie Randall said she would never get on a coach again after being left in pain following the crash.

She said: 'There was shouting and screaming. I was shouting 'get me out'.'

Meanwhile, sitting just two beds away in the acute medical unit of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, fellow passenger Muriel Seymour described the 'frightening experience', but praised the local people who rushed from their homes or stopped in their cars to help them in the aftermath.

She said: 'It didn't seem real, as if it was happening. Everybody was screaming - there was a terrific noise.

'They had to cut me out. I was on the side next to the road and had a young lad on my left side and him and somebody else fell on top of me.

'But somebody quickly came to me, I don't know where he came from. He said he was a student medical - perhaps he was in a car or saw it.

'I was very shocked but wasn't too badly hurt, but I did hurt my leg, especially my left knee.'

Mrs Randall had gone on the five-day coach tour with her close friend Dorothy Dear.

The widow, from Felixstowe, said: 'I ache. I don't no where to turn. They keep giving me morphine but it doesn't last that long. I'm battered.

'You don't come away on holiday to end up like this do you?

'They had to cut my clothes off and they are all in ribbons now. I haven't got anything to wear.

'But I don't think I'll be going anywhere at the moment.

'I can't even get out of bed.'

Mrs Randall, who has two grandsons, nine great-grandchildren, and one great, great-grandchild, was sat in the middle of the coach when the accident happened at Horsham St Faith, near to Hart's Hill Farm.

The 91-year-old added: 'I was sitting there and suddenly there was a screech of brakes and I was flung left and the coach went over.

'I landed on top of a gentleman and his wife and I kept trying to keep myself off them which I shouldn't have done because I made it worse for myself.

'There was a big window by me and someone broke the window and I managed to get out.

'I have injured my ribs and that's what's causing all the pain.

'I didn't have a seatbelt on. I had just taken it off because the seat was so narrow and the gentleman next to us had pushed his seat back. The belt was so tight I couldn't stand it and took it off only about five minutes before it happened.

'Still, I felt please I wasn't left hanging up like the others.'

Emergency services declared a major incident and Horsham St Faith Social Club was opened to provide support to the non-injured passengers.

The road was closed until late into the evening, when the coach was recovered. It is not known why the vehicle veered off the road and turned onto its right-hand side.

Mrs Randall admitted Christmas Day would be 'a bit mournful' this year, but added: 'I've got many happy memories so I can live on those.

'I don't like to dwell too much on anger or anything like that.

'But I won't get on another coach ever.'

The single-decker was on its way to the Holiday Inn in Ipswich Road, where the couch tour passengers were booked in to stay for five nights, when the crash happened.

Fellow passenger Mrs Seymour, 87, said she thought most of the people on the tour were from either Norfolk or Suffolk.

She said: 'It was a day trip to Holt in the morning for a couple of hours and then on to Sheringham for two hours there.

'We were just on the way back to the hotel at Norwich.

'Strangely enough the day before we went which was the 23rd, I nearly changed my mind. I don't know why. I was talking to one of my granddaughters and she said to me that if I didn't like it then to give her a ring and she would come and pick me up.'

The widow, of Drinkstone, near Bury St Edmunds, said: 'It happened so quickly. I was the second row from the front behind the driver and we were going along back to the hotel.

'And then it seem to go a little faster then when I looked to the left all I could see was grass and I think the coach ran on to it.

'Then it slowly started to go over and then it went down quickly.'

The great-grandmother said she had been worried about the knee, as she had a new knee last year and feared that it had been damaged and she would have to undergo another operation. However, after reaching hospital doctors said she had bad bruising and she was kept in overnight and on Christmas Day.

She said: 'When it happened there was a couple living in a bunglow quite near and they heard it and they rushed out to the coach. They were called Sheila and David, but I don't know their surname, and they stayed with me all the while when they got me out.

'I was laid on a sheet at the side of the road with another lady.

'They were a lovely couple and I didn't get the chance to thank them. I can't really thanks them enough because it was a cold night and I know she had been busy cooking her mince pies.

'The gentleman was saying all sorts of funny things and was trying to cheer me up. He was on his knees behind me trying to hold me up and keep the cold off.'

The crash also same as a nasty shock to Mrs Seymour's family. She added: 'When I'm away my son always rings me up every day.

'He was ringing and couldn't get an answer and then he heard it on the radio. He said he knew then that it was my coach.'

It wasn't until the hospital rang him later on that he found out that his mother was badly bruised and shaken, but okay.'

Mrs Seymour, a widow, said her grandson had already picked up her clothes and possessions from the hotel, and she was hoping to go home as soon as possible.

'It was a very frightening experience. You hear and read about it in the papers quite a lot but you never think it will happened to you.

'I never thought I would be in here on Christmas Day.'

Were you involved in the crash, either as a passenger or someone who rushed to help? Contact the newsdesk on 01603 772419 or email newsdesk@archant.co.uk