AN ELDERLY man who suffered dreadful injuries when he slipped and knocked his head on a coach driver’s gear stick, while on a mystery tour of Britain, is suing for up to £150,000.

Lawyers for the 79-year-old from Andover say he slipped on a piece of loose carpet on the coach and knocked his head on the “Britannia Mystery Surprise” holiday.

He suffered a brain haemorrhage from the blow to his head in the June, 2012 accident and is now viewed as incapable of managing his own affairs. Although he underwent surgery, he has been left with symptoms which are “profoundly disabling and are likely to be untreatable and permanent”.

His legal team have now issued a High Court writ against Scottish tour operators David Urquhart Travel Ltd. The pensioner’s claim is for £50,000 to £150,000 in damages. In the writ, his barrister, Harry Trusted, says the man and his wife paid £298 for “a coach tour to a mystery destination”.

The trip lasted five days and four nights and, after starting in Southampton, holidaymakers were put up at a hotel in Stockport, Cheshire, as a base for excursions.

The coach was on its way back south when disaster struck during a rest break at the Fleet Services on the M3.

The writ alleges: “The claimant and his wife were the last passengers to leave the coach. As the claimant stepped on to the steps leading down to the ground, the carpet on the first step suddenly slid from under his feet. As it did so, the claimant fell backwards and hit his head on the gear stick.”

The tour operator’s defence to the claim was not available from the court and the contents of the writ have yet to be tested in evidence before a judge.

When the Advertiser approached David Urquhart, a spokesman said: “Customer safety and well-being is of paramount importance to David Urquhart Travel and we work with only leading and established suppliers that we can trust to have the same high standards that we ourselves insist on. With legal proceedings ongoing we do not consider it appropriate to comment further.”