This morning just after 9am, Friday 3 May 2013, there was a road accident on the main motorway to Port Louis. A bus from the express CNT Blue Line coming from Vacoas to Port Louis and transporting +40 passengers rolled over several times.
Apparently, the brakes had failed and the bus picked-up speed with the driver trying to avoid other vehicles before loosing control. The crushed bus came to halt upside-down with driver and passengers trapped inside.
At writing of this text there were 10 dead and 40 injured taken to three major hospitals. This terrible accident comes just after the tragedy suffered in Mauritius due to flash-floods on 30th March 2013.
A very sad accident and a reminder about all things-safety comes to mind.
As up to 3 years ago, whilst working with our local Fire & Rescue Service and often going out to scenes of accidents involving “Persons Trapped” or those including fatalities, I would be a little concerned at the taking of images of injured or deceased persons (without their permission), which it appears have been published so quickly on the web and from the movies.
Always there should be notification to relatives etc., via the correct channels – rather than the press/media/web.
Priority should always be given to the Emergency Services to do what they have to & on occasions being directly assisted by members of the public in the first instance and occasionally further-on, but it seems from the images and movie, with the use of a heavy-lifting/stabilising crane (already in attendance), that there were many people lingering around, which can delay the necessary activities from those who really need to be there.
Obviously I was not there to see the accident from the start and therefore would need to ascertain the whole string of events on this occasion to justify my comments above, but perhaps there maybe some justification to my remarks – for future use, by the authorities there…
My condolences to the bereaved families…