TIM Carling imagined he would have to bring up his daughter Rebecca single-handed when they scrambled clear from the smashed coach on an Austrian mountainside last week.

The 46-year-old design engineer and his 12-year-old daughter had been sitting together when the coach crashed and rolled about 100ft down an embankment on Tuesday (August 10).

His wife Jackie, 40, and son William, 14, had been sitting on the other side of the doomed vehicle and he feared the worst.

Five of the 49 people on board died, including 33-year-old musician David Hamilton from Southbourne.

When the coach came to a rest on its roof Mr Carling and Rebecca were hanging upside down, held in place by their seatbelts. He had gripped his armrest tightly as the coach tumbled down.

He told the Echo at the weekend: "At the foot of the incline Rebecca was screaming 'I can't get my seatbelt undone, Dad'.

"Then she went quiet and said, 'Okay, I've done it now and I'm going out'. I followed and was able to fall into the space she had left and then I was out in a field."

"I was thinking I've got to bring this little girl up by myself. I went around the back of the coach quickly. The only people I could see who'd got out were William and Jackie standing a few yards away. They couldn't believe it when they saw me and I couldn't believe it when I saw them."

Mr Carling suffered bruised ribs. His wife also suffered bruises to her ribs, a badly bruised thigh and a gashed arm. William sustained a bruised back and shoulder and Rebecca was virtually uninjured.

"The seatbelts saved our lives, there's no doubt," said Mr Carling, who returned with his family to their home in Avenue Road, Walkford on Saturday afternoon (August 14).

The trip had been part of a package holiday in Austria.

They had been to see Hitler's Eagle's Nest and Berchtesgaden retreat.

The party had been given the option of taking the autobahn or the scenic route and, tragically, the mountain road was chosen. A minibus overtook the coach on a blind bend and forced it off the road. It was to be a horrific end to what was the family's first holiday abroad together.

Mr Carling said "The emergency services had a strategy. They knew what to do and they got on with it in a really professional manner."

Because they had suffered relatively minor injuries the Carlings were left to last to be taken to hospital. After treatment they were taken back to their hotel.

On Friday, Mr Carling attended a memorial service to the dead and then returned to the crash site. The landowner is to have a memorial there.

"We really are very lucky people. Our thoughts are really for all the people who were left out there and our deepest condolences go to the friends and relatives of the five that died," said Mr Carling.

First published: August 16