Horrifying details continue to emerge from a devastating bus crash on the Kei Cuttings on Monday.
Initially, the death toll from the crash was believed to be 28, but when pathologists started removing the deceased from body bags for postmortems, two additional victims were found. In the end, 30 were confirmed dead, including three children, 20 women and five men (one of whom was the bus driver). Six seriously injured passengers are being treated in East London’s Frere Hospital.
It then emerged that the bus involved in the deadly crash wasn’t the first one that the passengers had boarded. The first bus, which belongs to company DMJ, had to be ditched in Qonce (formerly King William’s Town) because it had broken down. The passengers were then loaded into a second bus – a double-decker, laden with a trailer, that would ultimately crash.
While details are still emerging and investigations are under way, it already appears the second bus was borderline fit for purpose. Eastern Cape transport MEC Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe said at the accident scene on Tuesday that DJM “was aware that the bus was not in a good condition”.
“But we will wait for the results of the investigations being done by our law enforcement officials. We cannot just conclude now what really happened,” she said.
Some surviving passengers said the bus slowed to a crawl on uphill and then sped up dramatically as it veered out of control down the notoriously dangerous Kei Cuttings.
The company’s marketing manager, Thembisa Mkhohla, was adamant that the bus was roadworthy, saying its own mechanics at the Cape Town depot were under instruction to perform mechanical roadworthy checks an hour before the buses departed.
She said that she could not comment on the passengers’ allegations.
“What I can attest to is that the bus was fully inspected and guaranteed roadworthy,” she said but then conceded that “maybe the complications took place en route”.
Clearly, a full investigation is needed to determine exactly what went wrong. But a single investigation into one crash – no matter how horrific – will have little impact unless lessons are learnt more broadly.
Officials first need to work out exactly why the N2 highway between Mthatha and East London is so dangerous, and then ensure it is made safer. According to Arrive Alive, this stretch of road was, already as far back as June 2018, the most dangerous in the Eastern Cape and one of the most dangerous in SA. The report noted that it was “frequently called SA’s ‘highway to hell’ for good reason”.
There also needs to be action taken against the bus company if it is found that the vehicle, or the driver, was in any way responsible for the accident. And this cannot merely be placating the families for the loss of their loved ones, or offering platitudes – it has to be real action with real consequences that will force the company to making sure it isn’t responsible for something similar again.
Government also needs to have a long, hard look at road traffic law enforcement, with speed likely playing a part in this and other crashes. Better enforcement and better spot-checks for unroadworthy vehicles could have found any potential problems with this particular bus. It would be interesting to know how many traffic police officers this bus drove past on its journey after leaving Cape Town ...
These, of course, are just the starting points. There are no quick fixes. But there is a lot more that can, and should, be done – by government, private companies and all road users – to keep roads safe. Unless that happens, it’s only a matter of time before a crash like this happens again. And that cannot be allowed to happen.
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