Buses Carrying Chinese Tourists Crash Twice at Same Spot in New Zealand; 15 Injured

Photo : AP

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Two buses carrying Chinese tourists veered off the same stretch of road on New Zealand’s South Island in perilous weather conditions on Thursday. The incidents, which occurred simultaneously, resulted in 15 passengers being taken to the hospital, with two of them sustaining serious injuries.

According to an emailed statement from New Zealand police, the buses were traveling in the same direction on a popular tourist highway when they skidded off the road and overturned about 100 meters (109 yards) apart. Freezing temperatures, heavy fog, and black ice created treacherous conditions on the road at the time.

Authorities have yet to determine the cause of the accidents. While a spokesperson would not confirm the nationality of the passengers, the Chinese consulate in Christchurch confirmed to The Associated Press via email that the buses were carrying Chinese tourists.

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The local ambulance service reported that 15 people were taken to the hospital, with two in serious condition being transported by helicopter. Eight passengers sustained moderate injuries, and five had minor injuries. Officials did not specify how many were treated at the scene or the total number of passengers on the buses.

No other vehicles were involved in the crashes. The road remained closed for several hours afterward, with no alternative routes available.

Grace Duggin, an Australian tourist, witnessed one of the buses veering off the road and rolling multiple times before coming to rest in a field. She described the conditions as treacherous due to the slippery black ice, which often closes South Island tourist highways in winter.

Duggin recounted how a man pulled bloodied passengers out through a hatch in the roof of the bus. “It was mostly the little kids who had severe head lacerations," she said. "All the windows were completely smashed out on both sides and the windscreen, so obviously there’s been a lot of glass injuries.”

She noted that the other bus appeared to have veered off the road simultaneously, a short distance further along the highway on the same side. Neither bus seemed to have been involved in the other’s crash, and both vehicles appeared identical, though they lacked visible logos or company names.

Earlier in the day, the country’s transport agency had issued a warning about the wintry conditions on State Highway 8. The stretch between Lake Tekapo and Twizel, where the crashes occurred, had been closed days earlier following another crash on a snowy, icy morning.

This stretch of highway, like many of the South Island’s tourist routes, offers stunning mountain and lakefront vistas but can be perilous during the Southern Hemisphere winter. Tourists and locals have previously lost their lives on this road. In April, a three-car crash resulted in four fatalities, including two Malaysian students studying in New Zealand.

In 2019, an American tourist pleaded guilty to driving charges after drifting onto the wrong side of the road and hitting another car, killing an Australian visitor.

New Zealand’s highways, particularly those outside the main cities, are often narrow, winding, or mountainous, and have been the sites of deadly tourist bus crashes in the past. One of the most severe incidents occurred in 2019 when a bus flipped in rainy conditions north of Rotorua on the North Island, killing five Chinese tourists. Another tragic accident in 2008 saw eight tourists and their driver killed when their bus collided with a logging truck.