George Searle, along with Terry Ormerod was the co-owner of "Searle and Ormerod Coach Company" in Weatherfield. Emily Nugent booked one of their coaches for the Street's outing to the Lake District in October 1969 but driver Reg Ellis took coach 48 out instead of 172. Coach 48 was in the middle of repair work and the two men realised that the steering mechanism could go at any moment. The cautious Searle was reluctant to contact the police but the nervous Ormerod forced the issue and alerted them. Searle provided the police with the scheduled route but Ray Langton had forced a vote on the coach to change the route and the police were unable to find the coach for several hours. When they did the coach crashed as Reg Ellis attempted to stop as he heard the police siren. Ellis was killed and