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An accident reconstruction team has started investigations to determine the cause of a bus crash that took place outside Polokwane this morning (Friday, September 21).
Investigators from the Road Traffic Management Corporation have join the team led by South African Police Service and preliminary indications from the team is that human error was main cause of the crash. However, this will be further investigated by experts from the South African Police and the RTMC.
It has however been confirmed that nine people (four males and five females) died when the passenger bus travelling from Zimbabwe to Johannesburg failed to negotiate a bend causing the bus to overturn. About 50 other passengers were transported to hospital with various degrees of injuries.
This is the second long-distance passenger bus crash to take place on the N1 in Limpopo in one week. Twenty people have died in both collisions.
The RTMC has been involved in investigating eight major fatal crashes involving busses so far this year. Busses contribute about one percent of the total number of fatal crashes caused by all modes of road transport in the country. Last year (2017) there were 161 fatal crashes involving busses which was a slight decrease compared to 202 fatal bus crashes recorded in 2016.
However more needs to be done to curb the spate of bus crashes in the country as one incident claims more lives compared to others modes of road transport.
The RTMC sends its deepest condolences to the families of the deceased and wishes a speedy recovery to all the injured. The Corporation commits itself that it will work with other authorities to investigate the exact cause of this crash so as to bring closure to all affected.