A MEMORIAL has been unveiled to 12 people killed when a suspected IRA bomb exploded on a coach travelling to North Yorkshire military bases.

Eight soldiers and four civilians were killed in the incident on the M62 near Bradford, on February 4, 1974.

The vehicle was taking servicemen and their families from Lancashire to bases in Catterick Garrison and Leeming, North Yorkshire.

On the 35th anniversary of their deaths, the families of those killed gathered to see the memorial unveiled and a commemorative tree planted in a garden outside the main entrance to Hartshead Moor service station, close to where the explosion happened. Also attending the ceremony was Roland Handley, 74, from Middleham, near Leyburn, North Yorkshire, who was driving the bus when it exploded.

He said: “I never imagined there would be so many people there. I have had parents come and hug me, it really takes your breath away.”

Recalling the incident, Mr Handley said: “I don’t remember much – just a bang that took me out of my seat and the windscreen broke all over my face.

“There were no lights on the motorway, so we were in complete darkness, it was frightening.

“I found a torch and shone it on the coach and there were bodies all about.

“I had to walk up onto the embankment just to get my breath back and then I have never been as glad to see blue lights in my life.”

Maureen Norton, the youngest sister of Terry Griffin, a 24-year-old Bolton soldier killed in the blast, had campaigned for a more fitting memorial to replace the plaque inside the service station’s foyer.

She said: “The impact the incident had on my family is indescribable.

“I have never known actual pain like it and to see my parents so heartbroken was terrible.

“My father died prematurely through the stress of it.”

Sir Norman Bettison, Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, said: “The Troubles, as they were and are euphemistically called, cost the lives of military personal and civilians in Northern Ireland and on England’s shores.

“Many soldiers died with their rifle in their hands.

These soldiers died with their children in their arms and their families by their sides.”