Bus Slides On Icy Ball Hut Road

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30215, 21 August 1963, Page 14

Bus Slides On Icy Ball Hut Road

Twenty-six passengers and the driver had a lucky escape when a Mount Cook tourist bus slid backwards out of control down an icy hill near Ball Hut.

The driver. Mr G. Alford, saved his bus and passengers by turning the right-hand rear corner into the bank; but the road was little wider than the bus and the front wheel next to the entrance door hung over an almost sheer drop of nearly 100 ft, the bus resting on its chassis. Mr Alford then instructed everyone to keep seated while he edged his way out of the door and round on to the road to open the rear emergency exit. The bus was balanced so precariously that had all the passengers moved towards the entrance the vehicle might well have plunged down the bank. The bus, belonging to the Mount Cook and Southern Lakes Tourist Company, Ltd., left the Hermitage at 9 a.m. on Sunday for a routine day trip to Ball Hut. It was the first of two buses. The read, always difficult, was particularly treacherous because of ice which had formed when rain fell on impacted snow On the final climb to the Ball Hut. where the road is cut into the side of a steep bank of rocky moraine beside the Tasman glacier, chains on a rear wheel suddenly gave way and the bus started sliding backwards. Mr Alford engaged reverse gear and backed into the bank; even so. the vehicle had gone 30 or 40 yards down the hill before being arrested. The passengers, none the

worse for the accident, walked the rest of the way to the Ball Hut and carried out their ski-ing or other activities as planned. Meanwhile, the plight of the bus had been seen both from the hut and from a DC3 aircraft on a charter flight and a relief bus was soon on the way. The road remained blocked until yesterday when in spite of heavily falling snow a bulldozer belonging to a Ministry of Works contractor managed to pull the bus back on to the road. The bus. although apparently undamaged, will be sent to Timaru for a cheek before being put back into service.