Crash victim grabbed wheel

A PASSENGER on the tour bus that rolled south of Alice Springs on Tuesday was forced to take the wheel in a desperate bid to keep the vehicle on the road, a fellow passenger has revealed.

The tour group of 14 was returning to Alice Springs after three days of sightseeing at Uluru and Kings Canyon when it rolled on the Stuart Highway, injuring all on board, two seriously.

Dutchman Jim Van Der Meer, 24, was sitting in the back seat with his travelling companions when he noticed the bus drift to the right.

As he yelled to the driver, another passenger closer to the front reached out and took the wheel to centre the bus. Mr Van Der Meer, on his first trip out of Europe, said the bus then lost control and fish-tailed as though it was ‘‘travelling on ice’’.

‘‘Then it started rolling,’’ he told theNTNews.

‘‘Luckily, we landed on the wheels again. Everyone was screaming and I yelled at people to stay calm. I was lucky. I was probably the least injured.’’

Mr Van Der Meer said people were bleeding and some clearly seriously injured but passengers willingly helped each other. He could not say how many times the bus rolled or say how the driver, who he described as ‘‘a great guide and great bus driver’’, began to drift off the road.

But he said it could have

Everyone was screaming and I yelled at people to stay calm

been much worse if the bus had not been fitted with seat belts, which he believed most passengers were wearing.

‘‘I wouldn’t want to think about what might have happened without them,’’ he said.

Mr Van Der Meer praised the ‘‘ Australian way’’ of the witnesses, who rushed to the passengers’ aid with water, Cokes and, curiously, ice creams.

He also praised tour company Wayoutback Australian Safaris, which he said had helped all the passengers and was still in touch with him, even though he was now in Cairns. Mr Van Der Meer is still in good spirits and loving Australia, but said he ‘‘won’t be buying any more lottery tickets’’.

Early reports stated there were 13 on the bus, but Mr Van Der Meer said the group was 14-strong.

They were treated at Alice Springs hospital, but one man had to be flown to Adelaide for treatment.

It is not believed his injuries were life-threatening.

Police are still investigating the crash.