Nine seconds between life and death

2003-05-02 22:00

Liezl Scholtz

Bethlehem - The ten survivors of the Saulspoort bus disaster near Bethlehem are very fortunate to be alive, because the emergency exit window was useless.

This is the view of an expert after he studied photographs of the doomed bus, which ploughed into the dam and sank.

The photographs showed that the emergency windows at the back of the bus were not broken.

Ivan le Roux, an expert with about 14 years' experience, said "the windows of a bus are all made similarly. The back windows are exactly the same as the others and have no special characteristics. It is sold as an ordinary window."

Le Roux says the Lord must have protected the survivors. "They are very fortunate. I think they found windows that were a bit more loose than the others."

Le Roux says a person who uses a bus or a taxi to make a profit, is compelled by law to have an emergency exit in the vehicle.

"A vehicle can only be declared roadworthy if there is an emergency exit.

"Some operators merely attach a sticker on the window indicating an emergency exit, but there's no proof that it is one.

"There's a loophole in the law and bus operators are making use of it, leading to the loss of lives."

Le Roux says "previous tests done on emergency exit windows by the South African Bureau of Standards indicated that pressure of about 260kg was needed to break a window."

The estimated two tons of pressure on the outside of a submerged bus makes it almost impossible.

"If a bus is full, it sinks within about nine seconds. If you cannot kick the window out within this time span, it's tickets", Le Roux said.

- Volksblad