Pretoria - The death toll of the Limpopo N1 bus crash that claimed lives of commuters on Monday evening has risen to 22 after another body was discovered by police divers yesterday morning.
Department of Transport and Community Safety spokesperson Tidimalo Chuene said divers went back to the scene at the Phandanama River to search after a family reported to the police that they could not locate a loved one who was on the bus.
The bus, from Mabirimisa Bus Services, was in a head-on collision with a cash-in-transit van, leaving 22 confirmed dead and 60 injured by yesterday afternoon. The injured were taken to Siloam and Elim hospitals.
The police have alleged that the van was trying to overtake another vehicle on the N1 outside Louis Trichardt in Limpopo.
The bus rolled off the bridge and into Phandanama River in the collision, which took place outside the Hendrik Verwoerd tunnel heading towards Musina. The bus was travelling from Louis Trichardt to nearby villages including Nzhelele, Tshikombani and Siloam.
Speaking to the Pretoria News, Chuene said: “SAPS divers have discovered another body at the bus accident scene. This brings the number of fatalities to 22.”
The Pretoria News yesterday reported that a survivor of the crash, Jacob Sibanda, 59, could not recall much before or after the bus plunged into the river.
However, that is not the case with another passenger in the bus, whose name is known to the Pretoria News, but withheld for fear of reprisals.
The woman, from Ha-Senthumule, commutes on the bus three times a week to do her business in Louis Trichardt and back to Siloam.
She said the bus driver had been reprimanded a couple of times by passengers for speeding.
She also accused the company of having overloaded the bus.
When Transport Deputy Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga visited survivors at hospital on Wednesday, some recalled the minutes before the crash.
A survivor only known as Baloyi, who takes the bus from work in Louis Trichardt every day, agreed with the source that the driver had been warned many times by the passengers.
He told Chikunga: “Even the company (Mabirimaisa) have been warning the driver (for his conduct) for a long time, to a point were they took away a bigger bus and gave him a small bus which he overloaded. He stepped on it [accelerated] when he wanted to overtake a truck. A cash-in-transit car approached and he shouted, then I heard a bang. The bus rolled into the river, and we started screaming because most of us were trapped by steel.”
He said he was stuck until someone came to help by removing the steel barricade. He added that he had had a similar experience with the same driver before.
The name of the driver is unknown as efforts to reach Mabirimisa were unsuccessful. General manager Robert Mabirimisa told another publication that their buses were roadworthy, and that the last time one of their buses was in an accident was about 15 years ago when it collided with another bus.
“The bus in this accident was roadworthy and had no technical issues.”
Pretoria News