OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday 9.00am.
ELEVEN people have been killed and nine left in a critical condition after a bus and a truck collided on the N1 between Laingsburg and Prince Albert.
Police spokesman Captain Eddie Cronje said police originally believed that 14 people had died in the accident but later ascertained on the scene that 11, including the drivers of the bus and the truck, were killed.
He said 29 bus passengers were injured in the head-on collision, which happened at 3.15am on Wednesday.
Nine of them are in a critical condition, while 15 others were seriously injured. Five have minor injuries, he said.
“The truck and the bus were travelling in opposite directions and they hit each other head-on,” said Cronje. The bus, which was travelling to Cape Town, rolled onto its side and some of the injured were flung outside the vehicle.
The driver of the truck and his passenger were killed instantly, while the bus driver died later, he said.
According to regional rescue services some of the injured were trapped inside and beneath the bus and had to be pulled from the wreck. Most of the injured are being treated at nearby Laingsburg Hospital.
The accident is the latest in a spate of fatal bus crashes in the country. In February, 34 people died when a bus plunged into a river bed in the Free State, and in April 15 people died and 45 were injured when a bus slipped down a mountain pass in the Western Cape.–AFP