A Golden Arrow driver has been suspended after his bus loaded with passengers crashed in a ditch on the side of the N2.
Golden Arrow Bus Services (GABS) confirmed that 52 passengers travelling on the Mitchells Plain Lost City bus from Cape Town had to be treated for minor to moderate injuries.
Gretchen Appollis, 38, from Mitchells Plain, says she boarded the bus in the CBD after finishing her shift on Monday afternoon.
Appollis says: “The driver is our regular driver. He is a safe driver, so we would have never pictured this happening.”
The bus was taking the R300 turn-off from the N2 when the incident happened at 5.45pm.
Appollis says: “[The passengers] were shouting, ‘driver’, then I felt us hitting the kerb and people were falling on me.
“I immediately started to pray that we all make it out of the bus. I looked out and saw a small fire coming from the bus, someone then came running with a fire extinguisher.
“He [the driver] took us all by the hand and helped each and everyone out of the bus, luckily the bus wasn’t full.
“When I got out of the bus, the first thing I recall is the driver telling us that something went wrong with the gear box, he couldn’t change gears, things could’ve been so much worse!”
GABS spokesperson Bronwen Dyke-Beyer says officials will be in contact with the injured, as well as explain the Road Accident Fund claim procedure and assist them with the paperwork.
She says the driver was suspended, and an investigation will take place to determine the cause of the accident.