35 hurt in bus plunge
THE Fiji Times on February 27, 1981 reported that 35 Monasavu hydro-electricity scheme workers were injured when their 60-seater bus failed to take a sharp bend and tumbled 10 metres down a hill at Nadarivatu.
It was stated that 17 of the injured were rushed by two ambulances, a helicopter and taxis from the Tavua Hospital to Lautoa Hospital for further treatment.
The Lautoka Hospital superintendent, Dr Ben Lomaloma, said four of the injured were admitted and three of them were reported to be serious while the rest had been treated and sent home.
The sub-divisional medical officer at Tavua, Dr Salik Ram Govind said passengers with cuts and bruises were treated at Tavua and allowed to leave.
He said the more serious ones and those with suspected broken bones or injuries to the chest, hip and back were transferred to Lautoka.
“It was very well coordinated with good cooperation between the medical staff and the Monasavu management,” Dr Govind said.
The bus was taking more than 50 workers of the Fiji Electricity’s Authority’s special projects division from Monasavu down to their families for a three-day field break.
SPD superintending engineer at Monasavu, Ken Casley, said the accident happened about 10:30am and described how the bus rolled over twice and then landed on its wheels against two pine trees which broke its fall down the slope.
Mr Casley was unable to release the name of the driver, who escaped with a leg injury.
One of the injured passengers,
Pushup Chand, told the bus was just beginning to take the bend when one of the front wheels slipped off the road and the bus tumbled over.
“Most of the passengers were trapped inside as it rolled down and we are lucky to be alive,” he said.
Passengers who escaped serious injury helped to get the hurt people out of the bus and up the slope to the road.
Mr Casley said SPD mechanics had made an initial inspection of the wrecked bus and found nothing mechanically wrong with it, with the brakes and steering still working.
“That is not to say something did not go wrong because we are still to interview the driver,” Mr Casley said.
Mr Casley, who described the accident as, one hell of a shock, said the bus was regularly serviced along with other vehicles.
ON February 15, 1981, The Fiji Times wrote an article on 48-year-old Fero Tavakisuva, a steel guitar musician.
Fero played the steel guitar and said it was an instrument that was getting out of date because not many young people were keen on the brand of island sound that it created.
The article noted how he was willing to offer free tuition to any dedicated person who wanted to learn to play that instrument.
Fero said it would not take more than four days to teach the technique to someone who already knows how to play the basics of a guitar.
Fero did not want steel (Hawaiian) guitar sound, that had been the beat of his life, to completely disappear from today’s sound of island music.
He had been playing music for the past 30 years and also played the ukulele and acoustic guitar.
He started as a rhythm player for a famous old-time band called Qelesisisi in the early fifties.
Fero could not keep his eyes off the steel guitar that was played by Sitiveni Rabo and decided to build his own steel guitar.
He bought the parts from a music shop and used the hard wood that he needed from a piece of timber from the old wharf.
With the Qelesisisi playing mostly Fijian music, with a few English and Indian songs, Fero toured most of Fiji playing at parties, dances and even graduation balls.
The steel guitar dominated the sound group of two guitars and two ukuleles.
“The blend of these instruments is really beautiful,” he said.
Fero said the sound of the steel guitar was something that tourists those days related to the music of the Pacific.
When the band broke up in the early ‘60s, Fero spent some time playing with family members.
He highly regards most of the younger local musicians, but sometimes finds the music too loud.
“You cannot hear the words of the songs when the music is so loud,” he said.
Fero reportedly said in the future he was likely to do a recording, blending the sounds of the steel guitar with modern instruments.