17 December 2008: The nightmare crash

article from IOLNews

By Gugu Mbonambi

A trip home for the Christmas holidays turned into a nightmare for a Durban man who woke from a deep sleep to find the luxury coach he was travelling in rolling down an embankment early on Tuesday.

Abdul Osman, of Berea, was not injured in the horrific accident that claimed 11 lives after the SA Roadlink bus crashed into a car on the N2 near Hibberdene.

"Before I fell asleep, the bus was speeding on the road. I suspect the driver was speeding to make up for lost time after we were stopped for over two hours at Mthatha because of a roadblock," said Osman.

Among those that survived the accident was a 2-year-old boy, who is in a stable condition in hospital. Another passenger was taken to Pietermaritzburg's Grey's Hospital in a helicopter in a critical condition.

The bus was travelling from the southern Cape and had stopped in the Eastern Cape to drop off passengers before continuing to Durban.

"According to witnesses who live close to the freeway, the bus, which was travelling in a northerly direction, tried to overtake a truck and suddenly veered off the road on to the southbound lane, where it collided head-on with a car," said South Coast police spokesperson Zandra Wiid.

She said the car was flung on to the Hibberdene on-ramp 20m below while the bus came to rest on its side on a bank.

"Five people in the car died instantly and one survivor was taken to hospital.

"Four passengers in the bus also died at the scene and two others died on their way to hospital," said Wiid.

The occupants of the car were four children and their parents.

ER24 spokesperson Derrick Banks said 18 injured passengers were treated at the scene before being taken to hospital.

SA Roadlink risk manager Herman Steyn said the company was trying to contact the families of the dead passengers.

Transport MEC Bheki Cele warned public transport operators to take responsibility on the roads or face losing their vehicles.

Tuesday's accident followed an incident last week when an SA Roadlink bus crashed into another bus on the N3 near Howick, injuring 40 people.

In June, 57 people were injured when an SA Roadlink bus crashed near Durban's Paradise Valley.

In another accident on Tuesday, 13 people were injured when their taxi crashed into a tree at the intersection of Dorothy Nyembe (Gardiner) Street and Margaret Mncadi Avenue (Victoria Embankment).