Horror relived

Press, 27 November 1987, Page 9

Horror relived

By

CHRIS TOBIN,

in Timaru The woman who died in the Mount Cook bus tragedy went through a window and was pinned under the bus, according to a woman on board. Mrs Olive Forbes, of Perth, recalled the event in the foyer of Timaru Hospital late on Wednesday evening. Thirty-one fortunate tourists escaped serious injury in the crash. “We were travelling along, then I felt a bit of a bump and saw dirt flying up. Next thing the bus went over on its side. “It was all over so quickly. A number of people were thrown out and the lady who went under the bus was killed. One woman went over my head and another was wedged under the steering wheel,” she said. Mrs Forbes was pinned to a wall of the bus for one and a half hours and was also jammed against a friend, who she thinks suffered a broken leg. “I couldn’t move and my friend was pushed up against me. Everytime she moved she screamed. They used gas to quieten her down,” she said. It took just over two hours for the rescuers to free all the passengers. Mrs Forbes said everyone was remarkably calm throughout the ordeal.