THE driver of a bus which crashed in eastern South Africa in September 1999, killing 27 British tourists and a South African tour guide, pressed the accelerator instead of the brake, his lawyer said.
Representing Titus Phillip Dube, 41, who was found guilty of culpable homicide in February, Gerhard Kotzee asked the Lydenburg Regional Court at a sentencing hearing that Dube be given a suspended sentence, and be allowed retain his driving licence.
”My client … engaged what he thought was the foot brake in order to slow the bus for the following descent,” he said.
”But instead of the bus slowing down as it was supposed to do, he felt a mild acceleration, which led him to instinctively fully depress what he once again thought was the foot brake pedal.”
Twenty-seven people, mostly elderly British tourists, died instantly and nine others, including Dube, were injured when the Springbok-Atlas coach hit a bank and rolled at the bottom of a pass, 5km from Lydenburg, on September 27, 1999.
The death toll rose to 28 when another passenger died in hospital three weeks later.
Kotzee said Dube realised in February this year that he had engaged the accelerator instead of the brake pedal.
This happened when he studied an analysis of the electronic device which recorded the engine speed and the road speed of the bus moments before the accident.
”My client was devastated by this realisation. He was deeply remorseful of his part in the loss of so much life, hence his plea of guilty,” Kotzee told the court.
Prosecutor Chris Kok agreed that ”it was a human error”.
Dube’s subconscious fear that the brakes would malfunction caused confusion in his mind which led him to continue pressing the wrong pedal, Kok added. – AFP
ZA*NOW:
Tour bus crash driver ruling today April 2, 2001