By SIKHO NTSHOBANE and MALIBONGWE DAYIMANI
Thirteen homecoming bus passengers, among them three children, died and 48 were injured on the winding and hilly road between Elliot and Ngcobo yesterday.
Witness Thulani Dlwati said he saw the bus careening from one side of the R58 to the other at 11am.
He turned around and found a scene of devastation.
The bus was on its back down the side of the pass and bodies were strewn everywhere.
The passengers in the Vaal Maseru bus were mostly migrant workers heading home from Gauteng.
Injured passengers were rushed to All Saints Hospital in Ngcobo.
By 3.30pm yesterday, three people still trapped inside the bus were rescued and airlifted to hospitals in Mthatha, said Eastern Cape transport department spokeswoman Khuselwa Rantjie.
Rantjie said the passengers were mostly workers returning home for Easter.
This is the same route on which 10 people, one a child, were killed and 47 injured in 2009.
Yesterday’s accident left scores of motorists travelling between the two towns stranded until late in the afternoon.
When the Daily Dispatch arrived on the scene shortly before lunchtime yesterday, emergency medical services personnel were still busy using the jaws of life equipment to extract passengers from the mangled wreckage.
The bus had reportedly failed to negotiate a curve, and instead veered off the road, overturned and plunged down a slope, landing on its back in a bushy area.
Eastern Cape provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo told the Dispatch that the driver had been flung out of the bus as it rolled and his body was found hanging from a tree.
Several bodies were scattered around the area while medical personnel were busy trying to get the trapped victims out.
The three people rescued from deep in the wreckage were in critical condition in Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, said Kupelo.
He said 12 passengers died on the spot including three little children.
The 13th victim died in hospital in the afternoon.
Hundreds of people, some residents of Ngcobo who had heard about the accident, others who were travellers unable to get past the crash site, gathered for hours at the cordoned-off scene.
Three helicopters from the health department and ambulances from East London, Elliot, Komani, Mthatha and Mount Ayliff were dispatched to the scene.
South African Council of Churches chairman in the Ngcobo sub-region, Reverend Malusi Keto, said it was one of the saddest days for Ngcobo.
“This is not the first time a horrific bus accident has happened on this road, which has killed too many people.
“Perhaps the government can help by putting up some traffic calming devices,” he said.
Thulani Dlwati, the truck driver, said he was driving towards Elliot and had almost been hit by the bus near Chefane village.
“I knew something was wrong as it was swaying from one lane to another. It was going at a high speed.” He turned around and found the bus lying on its back about 5km from where it had passed him.
Rantjie was unable to confirm the cause of the accident, saying only that they needed to first conduct an investigation first.
She said it was possible that some of the passengers were headed to Port St Johns.
Transport MEC Weziwe Tikana expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
On Tuesday, two passengers were killed when their vehicle collided with a Translux bus on the same road but nearer Qumbu.
Late yesterday, Kupelo said: “We are still to search for possible more bodies once the bus is lifted by a tow truck, which is on the way from Komani.” He said some passengers had escaped unharmed. —
sikhon@dispatch.co.za/
malibongwed@dispatch.co.za
13 killed, 48 hurt as bus plunges off pass curve
Thirteen homecoming bus passengers, among them three children, died and 48 were injured on the winding and hilly road between Elliot and Ngcobo yesterday.
Witness Thulani Dlwati said he saw the bus careening from one side of the R58 to the other at 11am.
He turned around and found a scene of devastation.
The bus was on its back down the side of the pass and bodies were strewn everywhere.
The passengers in the Vaal Maseru bus were mostly migrant workers heading home from Gauteng.
Injured passengers were rushed to All Saints Hospital in Ngcobo.
By 3.30pm yesterday, three people still trapped inside the bus were rescued and airlifted to hospitals in Mthatha, said Eastern Cape transport department spokeswoman Khuselwa Rantjie.
Rantjie said the passengers were mostly workers returning home for Easter.
This is the same route on which 10 people, one a child, were killed and 47 injured in 2009.
Yesterday’s accident left scores of motorists travelling between the two towns stranded until late in the afternoon.
When the Daily Dispatch arrived on the scene shortly before lunchtime yesterday, emergency medical services personnel were still busy using the jaws of life equipment to extract passengers from the mangled wreckage.
The bus had reportedly failed to negotiate a curve, and instead veered off the road, overturned and plunged down a slope, landing on its back in a bushy area.
Eastern Cape provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo told the Dispatch that the driver had been flung out of the bus as it rolled and his body was found hanging from a tree.
Several bodies were scattered around the area while medical personnel were busy trying to get the trapped victims out.
The three people rescued from deep in the wreckage were in critical condition in Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital, said Kupelo.
He said 12 passengers died on the spot including three little children.
The 13th victim died in hospital in the afternoon.
Hundreds of people, some residents of Ngcobo who had heard about the accident, others who were travellers unable to get past the crash site, gathered for hours at the cordoned-off scene.
Three helicopters from the health department and ambulances from East London, Elliot, Komani, Mthatha and Mount Ayliff were dispatched to the scene.
South African Council of Churches chairman in the Ngcobo sub-region, Reverend Malusi Keto, said it was one of the saddest days for Ngcobo.
“This is not the first time a horrific bus accident has happened on this road, which has killed too many people.
“Perhaps the government can help by putting up some traffic calming devices,” he said.
Thulani Dlwati, the truck driver, said he was driving towards Elliot and had almost been hit by the bus near Chefane village.
“I knew something was wrong as it was swaying from one lane to another. It was going at a high speed.” He turned around and found the bus lying on its back about 5km from where it had passed him.
Rantjie was unable to confirm the cause of the accident, saying only that they needed to first conduct an investigation first.
She said it was possible that some of the passengers were headed to Port St Johns.
Transport MEC Weziwe Tikana expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
On Tuesday, two passengers were killed when their vehicle collided with a Translux bus on the same road but nearer Qumbu.
Late yesterday, Kupelo said: “We are still to search for possible more bodies once the bus is lifted by a tow truck, which is on the way from Komani.” He said some passengers had escaped unharmed. —
sikhon@dispatch.co.za/
malibongwed@dispatch.co.za
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