Stuart Dines, a 14-year-old from Thomas Mills high school in Framlingham, Suffolk, was named yesterday as one of those killed. The other victim was a relief driver, understood to be married with children, who was travelling in the second coach.
Four other people were seriously injured and one is still “critically ill”.
Colin Hirst, the headmaster of Thomas Mills school had to wake Dines’s parents yesterday morning to tell them that their son had been killed on the way to Fugen in the Austrian Alps.
Hirst said: “It was the most difficult thing I have ever had to do in my professional career — nothing prepares you for something like that. It was obviously terrible news for the parents but his mother immediately asked about the other children.
“The school is a small community and everyone here will be deeply shocked. Stuart was well-liked and respected — a youngster who threw himself into school life and always had a smile on his face.” The boy was a member of the school rugby team for his year and a keen trampolinist.
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Yesterday, details of the accident began to emerge. A coach carrying children from Suffolk set off from the school on Friday lunchtime. However, at about 3.25am yesterday a tyre punctured and the coach pulled up on the hard shoulder of a motorway, southwest of Cologne.
It is then believed to have been hit by a lorry that jackknifed.
Another coach, which was carrying 36 pupils and five members of staff from the independent Norwich school, then crashed into the two vehicles.
One member of staff, Jane Irving, suffered leg injuries and was expected to stay in hospital, but none of the pupils from Norwich school was seriously injured and they have travelled back to Britain.
The dead coach driver was travelling on the Norwich school coach.
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Andreas Moh, from Cologne police, said the children were taken to makeshift first-aid centres. “The children have been traumatised and distressed,” he said. “The teachers are with them. We are still investigating what happened.”
The head of the medical teams, Dr Hubert Titz, said: “It was cold and wet. The children stayed calm and behaved well. But our first concern was to get the injured as quickly as possible to hospital and the survivors to safety in the warmth before the near-freezing temperatures and shock set in.”
The Foreign Office sent a group of 10 specialists trained in dealing with trauma and disasters to help the children.