/ 8 February 2006

Many injured in two Jo’burg bus crashes

A double-decker bus was wedged into a balcony in downtown Johannesburg’s Pan Africa House on Wednesday morning after a crash with a taxi that left 12 people injured, emergency services said.

”It [the bus] is stuck in the balcony on the first floor,” spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said.

The bus and taxi collided with the building on the corner of Jeppe and Troye streets — once the scene of a three-floor fire — during early-morning traffic, leaving the taxi driver and a shopkeeper opening for the day with broken legs.

The 12 injured people were treated on the scene and one was transported to hospital.

In a second accident on Wednesday morning, 31 people were injured in a bus crash to the east of the city. A company bus ferrying about 40 people crashed — requiring nine ambulances from ER24, Netcare911 and the provincial service, as well as two fire engines, Midgley said.

The injured were taken to various hospitals in the city. — Sapa