Deadly Mt Ruapehu Bus Accident: The passenger recalls chaotic scenes – "Everyone was just trying to get out"

A passenger in a fleeing bus says that there were chaotic scenes a few seconds before the accident that claimed the life of Ōhakune Mountain Road on Saturday

A young passenger – an 11-year-old girl – died and four people are hospitalized in a stable condition.

Aleisha Cope and her partner took the Ōhakune Mountain Road bus from skifield Tūroa because it was too iced for their car.

Ms. Cope said that five or ten minutes later, there was a loud noise and other passengers began to ask the driver if the brakes had failed, while the bus was swerving on any the road before crushing it.

"The driver was shocked and said nothing … trying to keep the vehicle on the road and making a gap to keep it straight

The bus hit some banks and everything happened very quickly, she said.

"Someone said that if you have ski helmets or helmets, front, back, especially children, there were a lot of kids on [19659011] People put themselves in a recovery position, panicked and do not know what to do.

"It was a nightmare and people were shouting and I think people were praying, people were crying. "

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"It was terrifying, to see someone jump off the bus while we were speeding up on that hill."

Coming to a bridge, with a corner inside the road she thought the bus would go to the side of the bridge.

"I thought, let's go straight through and we're going to die."

Just doing it around the corner and on the bridge, the bus rolled and crashed.

Mrs. Cope's partner helped her out of the main windshield of the bus that had broken it [19659006]"All the world was trying to get out, if it could move. "19659006] She now has a lot of physical pain, she needs help to get around.

"Emotionally, I am very exhausted and we have had a lot of tears. Today and our hearts are just painful for the family who lost their little one and it was just a traumatic experience that no one should ever to have to cross. "

The skifield was closed yesterday, but is still open this morning A local Iwi karakia attended by skifield staff.

"It was a pretty difficult task – a massive casualty site – and many of our front-line teams responded yesterday, so it's important that we Ross Copland, CEO of Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, said: "A bus service works, but all Mitsubishi Fuso buses, like the one involved in the accident, were removed from the road until an investigation was conducted. fact.