Johannesburg -
Deadly collisions, buses plunging over bridges, others overloaded with passengers hanging from open doors, and drivers texting on the job – this is the shocking state of Metrobus.
Friday’s head-on collision in Saxonwold, which left three people dead, including a driver, and scores injured, threatens to bring the transport utility to its knees.
A “devastated” Mavela Dlamini, managing director of Metrobus, told the Saturday Star on Friday night he was concerned by the number of accidents and reports of drivers talking on phones while behind the wheel and speeding.
Dlamini, insisted, however, that he was doing everything he could to ensure the safety of commuters.
This included sending more than 500 drivers back to school, to re-learn crucial driving skills.
“The training we are going to give them is not just standard driving competencies, but finer competencies. We want to expedite this training, but have to do it while also rendering a service to the public.”
A single-decker bus collided head-on with a double-decker on Jan Smuts Avenue, near Zoo Lake, about 6.15am yesterday. The single-decker had apparently struck a barricade on the side of the road when the driver lost control. The driver of the double-decker died, along with a pregnant woman and another passenger, whose arm was amputated at the scene.
Metrobus said the driver of the single-decker, although semi-conscious, had admitted he might have lost control of the bus.
In February, a Metrobus crashed through the railings of the Queen Elizabeth Bridge in Braamfontein, and in July, a driver lost control, killing four pedestrians, on Republic Road.
Dlamini said the driver training had started after February’s incident. He would do his best to ensure there was not another accident of Friday’s magnitude.
“We need to learn something out of this terrible accident... We understand people are hurting and we are hurting as well. Please bear with us.”
Neither driver had any record of reckless driving in careers that spanned 19 years.
On Friday, the Metrobus board held an emergency meeting with Joburg mayor Parks Tau. Another would be convened with drivers next week.
ER24 and Joburg Emergency Services said the mother-to-be, five months pregnant, had been trapped upstairs on the double-decker bus. She died on the way to hospital.
Her frantic father called Talk Radio 702, which had to inform him she had died in the crash.
Emergency Medical Services said the woman whose arm had to be amputated died in hospital.
Passenger Chante Davids said the driver of the single-decker bus was speeding and had lost control on the wet road. She normally stood next to the driver when she boarded the bus, but she was tired yesterday, so she sat down.
“If I had been standing, I would not have been here today. I thank my lucky stars.”
There was chaos after the accident. Emotional passengers hurried to get out of the bus, worried it could explode.
Witnesses told how they had seen the single-decker bus striking the barricade and veering into their bus.
Passengers said the bus driver who died had been one of the best. “He was a good man,” said one.
Nico de Jager, the DA’s spokesman on transport, who arrived at the scene, said it took five hours for the last passenger to be removed. “You could see the single bus was kind of half inside the double-decker. That driver didn’t have a chance. Passengers told me they saw the accident coming, that the driver was going a bit fast, but not excessively so.”
The road surface might have been a reason for the crash.
“The surface is so smooth – there was no grip. When it’s wet, it becomes slippery.”
- Additional reporting by Karishma Dipa and Kgopi Mabotja
Saturday Star