Woman dies, 15 injured in bus crash

Press, 26 November 1987, Page 1

Woman dies, 15 injured in bus crash

By

CHRIS TOBIN and DAVE WILSON

Timaru Hospital was being inundated with telephone calls from Western Australia last evening after a tour bus crash on the Mount Cook highway which left one elderly Perth woman dead and 15 others seriously injured.

The name of the dead woman was Elizabeth Sanderson, of Subiaco, Perth. The 47 tourists on the crashed Mount Cook bus are from Western Australia and concerned relatives, having heard the news, were bombarding Timaru Hospital with inquiries. Ten ambulances ferried the 15 injured people first to the Twlzel Medical Centre and then to Timaru Hospital where they arrived at intervals between 5.30 p.m. and 7.15 p.m. The surgeon co-ordinating the emergency in Timaru last evening, Mr W. P. Greenslade, said in 10 cases the Injuries were moderate to serious while the other five were less severe. No other details were available.

A tyre blow-out was believed to be the cause of the accident, according to those who attended the overturned bus soon after it ran off the highway about 2 p.m. The tour party was on its way from Mount Cook to Queenstown when the accident occurred near Boundary Stream, 14km from Lake Pukaki.

A woman employed at Glentanner Park, who did not want to be named, was travelling to Tekapo. not far behind the bus and was the first person at the

scene. She radioed Glentanner station which called the Mount Cook National Park headquarters and the Timaru police. Within minutes of the accident ambulances and other emergency services arrived. Four doctors and ambulances from Mount Cook, Fairlie and Twizel attended the scene and five ambulances came from Timaru with the St John Ambulance Association’s chief executive, Mr Robin Hawkins. A helicopter was kept on standby. Ambulances from Waimate and Temuka covered Timaru last evening.

The accident was the first Involving the death of a passenger in the 81-year history of the Mount Cook Group’s coach operations, said the group’s public affairs manager, Mr Ted Beckett, last evening. The coach was carrying a party of 47 elderly Australians on the third day of a seven-day South Island tour organised by the Perth radio station, 6PR. An internal Mount Cook company inquiry into the cause of the crash began yesterday afternoon when senior company personnel flew to the Mackenzie Country in a Friendship aircraft. Mr Beckett said the aircraft

was then placed at the disposal of the bus passengers, should they wish to continue their journey to Queenstown or return to Christchurch.

“The company expresses its sorrow at what has happened and wants to do everything it can to help the passengers,” he said.

Last evening the passengers chose to travel by coach to Timaru where they spent the night. Mr Beckett understood that four of the injured passengers had been taken by ambulance to Timaru Hospital while a total of 25 passengers were referred to the hospital for observation or treatment. He declined to release the name of the coach driver, saying it was not company policy to identify staff in such circumstances. Mr Beckett believed the passengers would decide today whether to continue or abandon I their journey. Mr Graham Maybury, host of Perth’s 6PR “Nightline” programme, which organised the tour, is flying to New Zealand to offer assistance to the passengers.

Further report, photograph, page 9