ROAD CONDITION DEFINITELY NOT A CONTRIBUTORY FACTOR TO BUS CRASH BETWEEN NONGOMA AND VRYHEID 

The Department of Transport in KwaZulu-Natal wishes to refute certain media reports over the weekend, that stated ‘the accident might have been caused by the poor road conditions in the area’. This statement is absolutely untrue and grossly misleading.  

Preliminary police investigations reveal that a tyre burst was the cause of the crash that occurred between Nongoma and Vryheid on Thursday, 25th April 2002 near Ngome Store and left 23 people dead and scores of others injured.

A road safety audit has been conducted on this section of road and it was found that this section of road is generally regarded as safe to the motoring public with no serious vehicle crashes reported in the past twelve months. This is a tarred road and is approximately nine metres in width. The said crash occurred on a straight and the road is clearly line-marked and signposted with roadside guard railings in tact. 

KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Mr S’bu Ndebele who visited the scene last Friday ordered a full investigation into this crash and a top team of detectives from the SAPS, traffic officers, including forensic accident investigations experts have been charged with this investigation. The investigation will look specifically at the condition of the tyres of the bus to ascertain whether the right front tyre burst before or after the crash and whether the bus was fitted with retreads or regrooved tyres.   

Police investigations into this crash are already at an advanced stage and a forensic expert from Pretoria will arrive in the province on Thursday (02 May 2002) to inspect the tyres as well as the condition of the bus and gather evidence for analysis in this regard.  

A postmortem has already been conducted on four of the deceased and 15 of the 23 people have already been identified. The police are presently experiencing difficulties in the identification of the remaining deceased and members of the public are urged to assist in this regard. The names of the deceased are expected to be released later this week. 

A number of survivors who have since been interviewed have confirmed that they heard a tyre burst just prior to the crash. Preliminary investigations point to the fact that the cause of this crash was the tyre burst although more evidence is currently being gathered to prove this. 

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