Victim sues SA Roadlink

2009-10-28 20:03

Pietermaritzburg - A 30-year-old Johannesburg man who suffered severe head injuries in a South African Roadlink bus crash in 2006 is claiming R1.215m from the bus company's passenger services.

The accident in which Wellington Manana was involved occurred on the Christmas Eve of 2006 in Pietermaritzburg.

The case began in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court on Wednesday and was expected to last for the rest of the week. SA Roadlink is opposing the claim.

The bus collided with a pillar of an overhead bridge on the N3 bypass.

Manana's legal counsel Gerrie Roberts submitted that the driver, Charles Vaudin, was driving too fast, failed to keep a proper look-out, did not control the bus properly, did not avoid the pillar and failed to take evasive action.

Vaudin was acquitted on a charge of culpable homicide in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court last year

The defence claims the accident was caused by the sudden deflation of a rear tyre.

Manana's wife Marina told the court she and her husband boarded the bus in Johannesburg to attend a relative's wedding in Durban and that she hear a scraping noise shortly before the crash.

She was slightly injured in the crash, but her husband suffered head injuries and a broken neck and leg. He was taken to Grey's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg where he was treated for two months.

On his return to Johannesburg, he was treated as an outpatient at the Helen Joseph hospital.

According to neurosurgeons, Manana suffers from amnesia, but can communicate.

The case continues.

- SAPA