Seven people were killed in a collision between a bus and a fire engine in Port Shepstone in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday.
The crash claimed the lives of three firemen and four bus passengers, six of whom died on the scene.
Police spokesperson Zandra Hechter said the seventh accident victim died in the Port Shepstone Provincial Hospital.
One of those who died was initially thought to have been a pedestrian, but Hechter said it had since been established that the person was in fact a passenger who had been standing on the steps of the bus.
The fire engine was responding to a call in the nearby town of Hibberdene on Monday morning when it collided with the bus at an intersection on the R102, about 500m from the hospital.
South Coast Herald editor Colleen Haggard told the South African Press Association that a Port Shepstone municipal protection services vehicle had stopped traffic to allow the fire engine to turn onto the R102 and head across the bridge over the Umzimkulu River.
The bus was heading towards Port Shepstone and had moments earlier crossed the bridge before colliding with the fire engine.
The collision happened metres from the newspaper’s offices.
Haggard said: ”We could hear the sirens. The next thing we heard was what sounded like a massive explosion.”
She said with the impact of the collision the bus crossed the north-bound lane and was lying on its side on an embankment near the river.
The fire engine had rammed straight into one of the pillars of an overhead pedestrian bridge.
”I have an office full of traumatised staff. It’s like you see in a horror picture.”
Anne Gouws, the receptionist at a local car dealership near the accident scene, said she was waiting in her car at the traffic lights on her way back to work.
”I saw it [the fire engine] go past. Then I saw the bus was airborne. I couldn’t believe it. I’m glad I didn’t walk to Pick ‘n Pay, because he crashed into the [pedestrian] bridge.”
Alec Henderson, a car salesperson, said he heard the impact of the collision. He was among those who rushed out to help the injured.
”There were two firemen in the front. I would say they were dead. People were just jumping out of the windows of the bus trying to get away. We were trying to calm them,” he said.
Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said 25 people on the bus were injured.
Of the four firemen on the engine, only one survived.
”It was a mess from hell. I have long last seen such destruction. It was really sad. Firemen had to come and cut their colleagues from the wreckage,” said Botha.
The injured were ferried to the nearby Port Shepstone Provincial Hospital and the Hibiscus private hospital.
Hechter said seven cases of culpable homicide would be opened. — Sapa