The bus was carrying people to an Easter church service when it fell off a bridge and plunged 165 feet into a ravine. Photo: Limpopo Department of Transport, via Reuters
An 8-year-old girl was the sole survivor after a bus carrying 46 people on their way to an Easter weekend pilgrimage in South Africa on Thursday plunged 165 feet from a bridge into a ravine and burst into flames, according to a local department of transportation.
The bus was travelling from Botswana to Moria, a religious pilgrimage site in South Africa’s northeast when it careered off a bridge winding through the Mmamatlakala mountain pass after the driver “lost control,” the department said in a statement.
Forty-five people, including the driver, were killed.
The girl was receiving medical attention at a nearby hospital, the Limpopo Province Department of Transportation in South Africa said in a statement. The child was in serious condition, according to another government statement.
“Rescue operations continued until the late hours of Thursday evening, as some bodies were burned beyond recognition, others trapped inside the debris and others scattered on the scene,” the transportation department said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa called his counterpart in Botswana, President Mokgweetsi Masisi, to extend his condolences, the president’s office said in a statement released late Thursday.
The crash occurred in a scenic, mountainous area of winding roads and sweeping vistas about three and a half hours north of Johannesburg. The road on a high overpass bent sharply over a ravine flanked on both sides by rocky, tree-covered slopes.
The area attracts a lot of traffic on Easter weekend for a pilgrimage to Moria, the headquarters of the Zion Christian Church, one of the largest in the country. Mr Ramaphosa visited last year’s pilgrimage, the first one since the Covid-19 pandemic. South African border officials had said they were bracing for an influx of visitors for this year’s pilgrimage.
The nationalities of the victims have not yet been determined.
The tragedy struck as South Africans prepared for a four-day weekend, with public holidays on Friday and Monday.
Around major holidays, the South African authorities often take extra measures like police roadblocks and publicity campaigns to help prevent traffic accidents. On Wednesday, South Africa’s minister of transport, Sindisiwe Chikunga, started an Easter road safety campaign, noting that traffic accidents often spiked during the holiday.
“Easter is a time for celebration, but it is also a time when roads can be more dangerous due to increased traffic and holiday festivities,” the ministry warned.
Africa has historically had among the highest road fatality rates in the world, according to data from the World Bank and the World Health Organization.
South Africa had more than 12,400 road fatalities in 2022, the most recent year for which statistics are available. The Automobile Association of South Africa called the traffic deaths a “national crisis” in a statement released last year. The association argued that the government needed to invest more in road safety and to enforce traffic laws better.
“Unless these two issues are dealt with, our country’s abysmal road safety situation will never improve,” it said.
公車墜橋45人死亡 僅8歲兒童倖存
據當地消防部門稱，週四，一輛載有 46 人前往南非復活節週末朝聖的巴士從橋下 165 英尺處墜入峽谷並起火，一名 8 歲女孩是唯一倖存者。運輸。
該部門在聲明中表示，這輛巴士當時正從波札那開往南非東北部的宗教朝聖地莫里亞，在司機「失控」後，巴士從一座蜿蜒穿過姆馬馬特拉卡拉山口的橋樑上衝下。
包括司機在內的四十五人死亡。
南非林波波省交通部門在聲明中表示，這名女孩正在附近的醫院接受治療。 另一份政府聲明則稱，這名兒童傷勢嚴重。
交通部門表示：“救援行動一直持續到週四深夜，一些屍體被燒得面目全非，還有一些屍體被困在廢墟中，還有一些屍體散落在現場。”
總統辦公室在周四晚間發布的聲明中表示，南非總統拉馬福薩致電博茨瓦納總統莫克維齊·馬西西，表示哀悼。
事故發生在約翰尼斯堡以北約三個半小時車程的風景優美的山區，道路蜿蜒，景色一覽無遺。 道路在一座高高的立體交叉橋上，在一條峽谷上急劇彎曲，兩旁都是岩石、樹木覆蓋的斜坡。
復活節週末，該地區吸引了大量遊客前往莫里亞朝聖，這是錫安基督教教堂的總部，這是該國最大的基督教教堂之一。 拉馬福薩先生去年參加了朝聖活動，這是自 Covid-19 大流行以來的第一次朝聖活動。
南非邊境官員曾表示，他們正在為今年的朝聖遊客湧入做好準備。
受害者的國籍尚未確定。
這場悲劇發生時，南非人正在準備為期四天的周末，週五和週一為公眾假期。
在重大節日期間，南非當局經常採取額外措施，例如警察設置路障和宣傳活動，以幫助預防交通事故。 週三，南非交通部長辛迪西韋·奇孔加 (Sindisiwe Chikunga) 啟動了復活節道路安全運動，指出假期期間交通事故經常激增。
「復活節是慶祝的時刻，但由於交通和節日慶祝活動的增加，道路也可能更加危險，」該部門警告。
根據世界銀行和世界衛生組織的數據，非洲一直是世界上道路死亡率最高的國家之一。
2022 年，南非有超過 12,400 人死於道路交通事故，這是有統計數據的最近一年。
南非汽車協會在去年發布的聲明中將交通死亡事件稱為「國家危機」。 該協會認為，政府需要對道路安全進行更多投資，並更好地執行交通法規。
「除非這兩個問題得到解決，否則我國糟糕的道路安全狀況將永遠不會改善，」它說。
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