Fire extinguisher explosion: bus driver not responsible

THE DRIVER could not be held responsible for an incident in which a passenger was flung from a bus after its fire extinguisher exploded.

This was the decision of the high court in Pretoria in dismissing the claim of the woman, who hails from Madidi in North West.

The woman had claimed for damages against the Road Accident Fund (RAF).

But the court on Friday told Tryphina Tau that the RAF could not be held responsible for the incident.

Tau blamed the driver of the bus for the incident, and told the court the RAF was thus responsible for compensating her.

She said she boarded the bus on December 20, 2010 from her village.

She was on her way to Eras- mia, and as the bus entered the depot where she wanted to disembark, Tau, who sat directly behind the driver, heard a loud bang.

The bus filled with smoke. Tau said she wasn’t sure what had happened, but was somehow flung out of the bus by the explosion.

Acting Judge E Swartz said the issue to be determined was whether the RAF could be held liable even if the injuries sustained by Tau did not arise from the driving of the insured motor vehicle, in the strict sense, but on the basis of the wrongful act of the driver or the owner of the bus.

According to Tau, the RAF should be held liable as the fire extinguisher exploded while the bus was still in motion and while the driver was looking for a place to park.

She said the last thing she could remember was that everyone on the bus was terrified when the fire extinguisher exploded and everyone tried to disembark at the same time.

She found herself outside the bus and injured.

The driver claimed that the bus had already stopped by the time the explosion occurred and that the engine was already switched off. The driver said commuters were terrified as they did not realise what had happened, and all were storm- ing the doors. Tau, she said, fell as she tried to disembark.

The RAF was adamant that it could not be held liable as the explosion had nothing to do with a wrongful act on the part of the driver.

The bus owner should be held responsible instead, the RAF said.

The judge said the most likely scenario was that panic erupted with the loud bang, and then the bus filled with smoke and everyone ran for the door.

While the bus driver was adamant that the engine had been switched off by that time, the judge said that whether it was still running or not, there was no evidence the driver was negligent.

Nor was there any evidence that Tau was injured due to the driving of the vehicle.

The decision was that the owner of the bus was liable to pay Tau’s damages.

Everyone tried to disembark at the same time