E Cape bus collision death toll rises

The accident is reported to have been a head-on collission(SABC)

Tags:

• Bus accident
• Eastern Cape
• Cradock/Graaff-Reinet road
• Arrive Alive
• Tsepo Macheaya
• Cape Town to Mthatha
• R61 closed
• N9
• Transport Deputy Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga

Another two people have died in hospital, bring the death toll in this morning's bus accident in the Eastern Cape to 18. Arrive Alive spokesperson Tsepo Macheaya says two more people died in Cradock Hospital.

He says 14 people have suffered serious injuries. Some of them have been transferred to hospitals in Port Elizabeth, East London and Bloemfontein. Twenty-eight passengers were discharged after receiving treatment at Cradock Hospital.

The accident happened on the Cradock/Graaff-Reinet road when the vehicles collided head-on. The bus was traveling from Cape Town to Mthatha and the school bus from Cradock for a sports event at Graaff-Reinet.

Two of the deceased were pupils from the Cradock Primary School. The driver of the school bus was also killed. The accident happened on the Cradock Graaff-Reinet road early this morning.

The cause of the accident is not very clear, but it has been reported that two buses collided. The one was from Cape Town to Mthatha and the second was a bus from Cradock conveying school children to Graaff-Reinet for sporting activities. 

The road has been closed, the R61 closed from Cradock side up to N9. Injured taken to Cradock Hospital Not in position to give an exact number. It is one of worst accidents involving school children.

Earlier, Transport Deputy Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga sent her condolences to the families of the people killed in this collision.

Chikunga says the country's road safety strategy should be reviewed. She says the current road safety strategy seems to be less effective.

Speaking during the funeral service of the victims of the truck and coal-train accident in Mpumalanga, Chikunga says the rate at which people lose their lives on the country's roads is worrisome.