Tragedy in South Africa: bus with 46 people on board fell from a bridge and only one child survived

A bus fell from a bridge into a ravine and caught fire on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2024, in South Africakilling 45 of the 46 people on board, said the Ministry of Transport.

An eight-year-old boy was the only survivor and was taken to hospital with serious injuries.

The vehicle was headed from neighboring Botswana to Moria, in the north of the country, the ministry said in a statement.

“It is alleged that the driver lost control, collided with the bridge barriers, causing the bus to travel over the bridge and hit the ground, where it caught fire.”says the statement.

Rescue operations continued into the evening, with some bodies burned beyond recognition and others trapped in the rubble or scattered around the crash site.

The bus had a Botswana license plate, local authorities said, but The nationalities of the passengers were still being checked.

Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga attended the scene of the accident and promised a thorough investigation into the cause.

While South Africa has one of the most developed road networks on the African continent, it also suffers from one of the worst safety records.

Just a few hours before the accident, President Cyril Ramaphosa appealed to South Africans to be careful when traveling over Easter.

“Let’s do everything we can to make this a safe Easter. “Easter doesn’t have to be a time when we sit back and wait to see statistics about tragedies or injuries on our roads,” he said in a statement.

The bus fell from a major bridge linking two hillsides near Mmamatlakala in Limpopo province, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) north of Johannesburg.