Ten swim to safety from bus

2003-05-01 18:00

Bethlehem - Ten passengers swam to safety from a bus that drove into a dam in the Eastern Free State at about 5:00 on Thursday morning, police said.

Senior Superintendent Sam Sesing said about 80 people were on the bus, on its way from Kimberley to a Workers' Day rally at Phuthaditjaba, Qwaqwa.

The survivors escaped through the windows, as the door was kept closed by the weight of the water.

The only woman among the survivors was Theodora van Wyk from Galeshewe, Kimberley. She told Sapa that passengers started screaming shortly before the accident happened around 05:00.

That was when the bus started running backwards to the dam from an elevation on a gravel road.

Bethlehem provincial hospital Superintendent Bakangwe Oliphant confirmed that 10 survivors were admitted at the hospital around 06:00, and one of them was treated for asthma.

None were seriously injured. The 10 were helped by a local official of the department of water affairs.

Police believe there are no more survivors.

Sesing said 70 people were believed dead, and divers had recovered 46 bodies by about 16:00.

Most of the bodies were found in the submerged bus, and eight were found in the water.

A local recovery truck managed to pull the bus out of the water around 14:30, Sesing said.

Free State African National Congress leader Mojaki Mojaki forbade journalists from speaking to the victims, saying they were traumatised.

"All of them are giving different version," Mojaki said. Free State government officials visited the survivors in hospital.

The bus crashed shortly after one driver took over from another. The bus driver was among the dead.

- SAPA