KEY POINTS:
A four-wheel-drive tourist bus that crashed down a bank, injuring eight passengers, is thought to have blown out a front tyre seconds before it left the road.
The Dune-Rider 4x4 Tours bus, returning with 20 New Zealand and foreign tourists from a day trip to Cape Reinga late on Wednesday, left Puketona Rd, near Paihia in the Bay of Islands, and tipped on its side at the bottom of a small bank.
One young woman with suspected spinal injuries was admitted to Whangarei Hospital in a stable condition before being moved to Middlemore Hospital in Otahuhu yesterday.
Three others on the buggy-type bus were treated at Whangarei Hospital and discharged and four more were taken to Bay of Islands Hospital at Kawakawa. Two of these were treated for minor injuries and discharged, while the remaining two were admitted in what the hospital described as a comfortable condition.
The 12 uninjured passengers were taken back to their motels and "all were well cared for", a management spokeswoman for the Paihia-based tour company said yesterday.
No other vehicle was involved in the accident, which is now being investigated by the Whangarei-based commercial vehicle investigation unit.
The company did not run tours yesterday.
"It's just common sense to debrief staff. There's a lot to sort through," said the spokeswoman, who would not give her name.
The tyre that blew out had been brand new and the bus itself had a new certificate of fitness issued only a week or two ago.
She described the driver, who was unhurt, as very experienced and said passengers had commented later that he had handled the vehicle well during the accident.
The Dune-Rider 4x4 vehicles are ex-Army transporters specially adapted for daily tourist runs to Cape Reinga and back via Ninety Mile Beach. The spokeswoman said the company had four vehicles on the run and all were well maintained.
The distinctive, gaily painted and high-riding buses have been taking visitors to and from Cape Reinga and other local tour destinations for 12 years.
