‘If you have a helmet, put it on’
A woman who survived a fatal bus crash near Tu¯ roa skifield has described the terrifying moments before impact, as one passenger warned others to put helmets on.
The bus, carrying 31 people, rolled on Ohakune Mountain Rd about 2.30pm on Saturday, leaving a young person dead and at least 18 people injured.
Fenella Murphy had spent the morning skiing with girlfriend Aleisha Cope when they decided to take the shuttle back to their car at the bottom of the mountain.
She said the bus had travelled about five minutes from the skifield before its brakes appeared to fail.
“The first sound we heard was this honking noise, like someone tooting the horn for a long time, and were a bit concerned as to what that was.
“Then we heard the driver panicking, and every time he stepped on the brake, there was sort of a gushing of air — we were starting to realise what was happening after that.”
Passengers began preparing for impact. “Everyone was bracing themselves . . . someone shouted, ‘if you have a helmet, put it on’.”
Less than a minute later the bus slammed into a bank, flipped and came to rest on its left side.
Murphy was one of the first out of the wreck, walking out the smashed front window.
She began helping the rest of the passengers. “Everyone was just in a shock . . . there was a lot of blood, a lot of head injuries.”
Murphy, who spent the night in Whanganui Hospital, was thankful to have escaped with bruises, while Cope suffered a back injury that wasn’t serious.
A passenger, who did not want to be named, who was travelling with his brother, said: “We just kept picking up speed, leaning further to each side . . . it actually felt like the movie Speed.
“Me and my brother looked at each other and we both said that ‘we are going to die',” he said.
The passenger was nursing a broken collarbone, rib and compression fractures in Whanganui Hospital while his brother was in Waikato, also with a broken collarbone.
Acting Whanganui Police area commander inspector Sue O’Neil confirmed a young female died as a result of the crash. Tu¯ roa ski field was closed for the day and a blessing was to be held on site.
A Waikato DHB spokeswoman confirmed two women, aged 29 and 31, and a man, 20, were yesterday stable.
Another 15 had moderate injuries.