Tour bus crashes in NZ

A tour bus belonging to a tourism company called Kiwi Experience carrying 41 tourists plunged over 30m off a road in New Zealand’s South Island on Saturday, but none was seriously injured, with Police saying two passengers were flown to hospital with moderate injuries, but discharged on Saturday night while the rest were treated for shock, cuts and abrasions after the accident near Fox Glacier.

The group of 44 mainly young, overseas travellers resumed their tour on Sunday, having survived a plunge down a 30-metre bush clad gully on State Highway 6 between the Fox Glacier and Franz Josef.

Chief Fire Officer, John Sullivan, says everyone on board climbed out of a broken window and walked back up the bank.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known, with a British passenger, who wanted to be identified only as Ollie, saying claims there was considerable drinking the night before the crash are fabricated and that he is annoyed at the media reports of a big night out prior to the accident.  He said as far as he saw, there was little drinking going on by the tour party or the driver.

Constable Neil Gillespie from Hokitika police says an inspection of the bus to check for mechanical faults will have to wait until it can be winched up the gully, with Mr Gillespie saying the driver has told police he was reaching for something when the accident happened.

Police say it may be several weeks before it is known if charges will be laid against the driver and they say they will await the results of blood-alcohol tests – a standard procedure – before deciding if charges will be laid.

The recovery of the Kiwi Experience bus will have to wait for a crane to be brought to the scene.

Sue Sullivan, Group General Manager for Kiwi Experience, said the company provided accommodation for passengers overnight and asked them on Sunday morning whether they wanted to carry on with their tour.

The Fire Service said the bus left the road and nose-dived into light bush, with the  crash site so far down the bank that emergency services initially drove right past it.

It is also thought that a ringing mobile phone may have distracted the driver of a tourist bus, with Fox Glacier motelier Jack Vaithilingam, who arrived on the scene minutes after the crash, telling the Sunday Star-Times: “They’re very, very lucky to have gotten out of there alive.”  “When you see where the bus ended up you would think half of them would have been gone.”

Local policeman Tony Le Sueur told One News that police would check if the driver was under the influence of alcohol, adding, “We’ve heard from witnesses that the driver was picking up an item from the floor and basically lost control and went over the bank.”

Passengers are reported to have said it appeared the driver had been distracted by a cellphone that he was reaching for when the crash occurred with 3 News reporting that the driver had fallen from his seat shortly after attempting to pick something up.

Police said driving conditions were good at the time of the accident and that it had been a cold night but there was no ice on the road and no obvious explanation for why the bus had crossed the centre line and gone over the bank.

Report by The Mole