A trip from Pretoria to Cape Town ended in tragedy this morning when a passenger bus overturned just outside Worcester in the Western Cape. Two women lost their lives.
Passengers were looking forward to the end of a long trip, when the accident happened just before 07:00 near De Wet Cellars. The bus apparently left the road, ploughed through the barrier and rolled down a steep embankment into a vineyard.
There were 72 passengers on the bus, including three children. Two people were injured seriously with 28 passengers with less serious injuries transported to hospital in Worcester.
Neazer Buffels, the acting chief of Municipal Traffic, was on his way to work in Worcester. “I was about four to five vehicles behind the bus, when it unexpectedly swerved and went off the road. The traffic was flowing freely beforehand,” he said on the scene. “I immediately called the emergency services and fire brigade who were quick to arrive,” he said. A co-ordinated effort between the emergency services, fire department, traffic officials, the Worcester police and towing services kept the traffic flowing and ensured the injured passengers quickly got medical attention.
According to bystanders the first few moments following the accident were chaos, with passengers climbing through broken windows and people crying in shock.
Following it’s roll down the steep embankment the bus came to a stop on its left side.The passengers’ luggage still need to be retrieved. Towing services will recover the bus during the morning, which may cause temporary road closures.
It is suspected that the accident may have been caused by driver’s fatigue. The police will continue investigating.
In another nearby incident this morning, the occupants of a bakkie was seriously injured following a crash with a train in the Goudini area. According to towing services on the scene, two people were seriously injured and a third had less serious injuries. The bakkie was carrying a load of peaches when the accident happened.
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