Speeding, unroadworthiness blamed after bus crash kills 43 in South Africa

Johannesburg:  South African Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said that a preliminary investigation into the recent bus crash in Limpopo Province found that excessive speed and the bus’s unroadworthy condition were key contributing factors.

The investigation into the crash, which killed 43 people and injured more than 30 passengers, was conducted by the Road Traffic Management Corporation.

“A major contributing factor to the cause of the bus crash was the driver of the bus, who drove at a speed too high for the conditions down the mountain pass,” the transport department said in a statement.

According to the statement, some of the brakes on the bus and its trailer were also found not functioning properly, with only five out of 10 brakes in operational condition.

The findings confirmed that the 62-seater bus was carrying 91 occupants at the time of the crash. Among them were 11 children aged between three and five.

“It has been established that the trailer attached to this bus was loaded with baggage and personal belongings,” said the department.

It said the foreign bus company would be investigated for possible charges of culpable homicide. Roadworthy centres that might have issued a roadworthiness certificate to the bus would also be looked into, Xinhua news agency reported.

The bus, carrying passengers from Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Malawi, was travelling from the Eastern Cape Province on Sunday evening when it veered off the road along a steep mountain pass and rolled down an embankment in Limpopo Province.

South Africa has an annual road death toll that’s significantly higher than the world average. It’s also higher than the African average.

According to the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA), South Africa’s road deaths – averaging 14,000 people per year – are “a national crisis”.

Over the holidays, in particular, serious road accidents are a daily occurrence.

Over the 2023/2024 festive season alone, 1,427 people died in road accidents on South Africa’s roads. Many more people were seriously injured.

–IANS