A Real Madrid bus crashed on the M40 the day after the club’s defeat to Liverpool in the Champions League.
Warwickshire Police confirmed no players from the LaLiga side were on the bus and there were no serious injuries as a result of the crash, which occurred southbound between junction 15 and 16 of the M40 shortly after 1pm on Thursday.
Football coaches Suraj Shehmar and Daryl McKnight, from Birmingham, drove past the scene on their way to work and said the incident had “probably made matters worse” after Madrid’s 2-0 defeat at Anfield on Wednesday night.
Just been sent this, Madrid's coach has crashed on the M40. pic.twitter.com/cQXVSgOCXj
— dave (@UTFR93) November 28, 2024
“It was a bit of a shock, a bit surreal… as I was approaching it I was thinking ‘that can’t be the Madrid bus, that can’t be the Madrid bus’,” Mr Shehmar, 30, told the PA news agency.
“I was trying to look into the actual coach to see if there was any players.
“The front was smashed, it was quite bad to be fair – especially after the night they had last night, it probably made matters much worse.
“I do hope they’re all OK, I hope everyone involved was OK and no one was badly hurt – that’s the main thing.”
Footage taken by Mr Shehmar was widely shared on social media and showed the coach stationary and appearing to have collided with the back of a lorry, but police confirmed a car was also involved.
Warwickshire Police said in a statement: “Our officers responded to reports of a collision involving a car, a lorry, and the coach of a well-known football team on the M40 southbound between junction 16 for Hockley Heath and junction 15 for Warwick.
“Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured.
“The players from the well-known football team were not on the coach at the time.”