The owner of a coach company whose vehicle crashed and killed a passenger after a trip to Alton Towers told an inquest that the bus was not defective.

The coach was returning 70 farm workers from a day trip to the theme park in Staffordshire when it plunged down a steep embankment on August 18, 2008.

Piotr Wolski, 26, from Poland, died in the crash.

Five people, including the driver of the bus, Richard Lane, were seriously injured, while another 53 suffered more minor injuries.

An inquest into Mr Wolski's death at Hanley Town Hall, Stoke-on-Trent, heard how Anthea Head, the owner of Decker Bus, told police the company carried out stringent safety checks on its vehicles.

Extracts from her interviews under police caution were read to the court by Pc David Burgham who said she told them each of the vehicles had a regular 28-day safety check, which was scheduled six months in advance.

The drivers also did their own daily inspections of the 10 vehicles, which were referred to as "walk-around checks" and filled in a check sheet on a daily basis, even if no work was needed.

Pc Burgham said Mrs Head stated she and her husband Tony, who was the main mechanic at Decker Bus, took the coach on a trip to Scotland not long before the crash, where she had driven it, and she was confident nothing was wrong with it, the inquest heard.

At the time of the crash, Staffordshire Police said the coach collided with two stationary vehicles in the village of Alton, smashed through a bridge wall, plunged 10ft (3m) to 15ft (4.5m) down an embankment, and stopped on its side in a garden, where it trapped another vehicle underneath it.

In March last year the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone over the crash and experts told the inquest they could find no evidence of brake faults, although it did seem they had not been working properly just before the crash.

Coroner Ian Smith said Mr Wolski, who had a post graduate degree in ecology, died as a result of asphyxia due to compression of the chest.

Delivering a verdict of accidental death, Mr Smith said he was satisfied the problems with the brakes could not have been foreseen, nor could they have been controlled by Mr Lane, who might have used the hand brake to stop the coach when the foot brake failed.