Tourist bus crashes near Akaroa

 

The bus and car crash has emergency response units scrambling to help injured passengers. Photo:...
The bus and car crash has emergency response units scrambling to help injured passengers. Photo: NZ Herald

Two people are in a critical condition after a bus and a car collided, sending the bus careering down a bank near Akaroa, on Banks Peninsula, this evening.

Five people with serious injuries and one with moderate injuries have been taken to Christchurch hospital, a St John spokesman said.

Twenty-six people have minor injuries and were being taken to Akaroa Fire Station where paramedics would assess them further

Firefighters had to cut one person from the car and the bus driver out of the wreckage, Fairfax reported.

A tourist bus has crashed down a hill near Akaroa. Photo: NZ Herald
A tourist bus has crashed down a hill near Akaroa. Photo: NZ Herald

Photos show the wreckage of the bus lying among the foliage. Trees behind the vehicle have been flattened.

Police say the bus and the car collided just after 5pm and the bus ended up down a bank near the intersection of Summit Rd and the Christchurch-Akaroa Rd.

Police were told there were 32 people aboard the bus when it went off the road near the Hilltop Tavern.

A St John spokeman said staff had assessed, treated and transported all the patients and there were 34 in total. 

Three fire engines, at least four ambulances and at least one police car were at the crash site on State Highway 75 and paramedics were assessing injuries.

​Camera operator Matthew Simons said he could see the bus about 50m down the bank and a blue wagon-like Toyota on the road.

Simons said he believed he'd seen one of the bus passengers emerging but was unsure.

There was "a whole heap of firefighters working around the bus".


Emergency units had to cut a person out of the car.  Photo: NZ Herald
Emergency units had to cut a person out of the car. Photo: NZ Herald

Firefighters had to use the jaws of life to cut the roof off the small, light blue ​car.

Debris from the crash was strewn on the road and the front of the car was mangled.

Pieces of the car were lined up on the side of the road, resting on a bank.

A staff member at the tavern told the Herald he was taking water to the victims, and helicopters were overhead.

A Fire Service spokesman said appliances from Akaroa and Christchurch city had been sent.

The Christchurch-Akaroa Rd is now closed between Summit Rd and Barry's Bay Rd.

Emergency services are responding to a tourist bus crash near Akaroa. Photo: NZ Herald
Emergency services are responding to a tourist bus crash near Akaroa. Photo: NZ Herald

Tragedy has struck Celebrity Solstice on New Zealand roads three times in the last few months.

A Canadian passenger from the ship was severely injured when he was hit by a campervan while cycling with his partner on Otago Peninsula last week. He has since recovered.​

An elderly American woman who was on board a November sailing was killed while riding a bike in Tauranga the day the ship arrived in the city. The 71-year-old was struck by a truck near the harbour bridge.

The same afternoon a bus carrying passengers from the same ship collided with a car on State Highway 29. The car's driver died after the crash. No one on the bus was injured.

 

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