Bus driver charged with careless driving for Tongariro crash which injured 14 tourists

A 68-year-old man has been charged with careless driving causing injury in relation to a crash that injured 14 tourists.

The man was driving a bus carrying visitors from North America and the UK through Tongariro National Park on January 15 when the vehicle careened 10m down a bank and into a stream at the intersection of State Highways 47 and 48 about 8am.

Four people, including a woman who was initially trapped in the wreckage and partly under water, were seriously hurt and another 11, including the driver, had minor to moderate injuries.

The driver will appear in Taumarunui District Court on April 13.

He was an employee of tour operator MoaTrek at the time of the crash, but the company's director, Miles Clark, wouldn't comment on whether the man still worked there.

However, Clark said, he was aware that police had laid charges against the man.

He told the Herald MoaTrek had done its own investigation into the crash, the company's first in "20 or 30 odd years".

National Park Volunteer Fire Brigade chief fire officer Neil Ranford was one of the first on the scene at the crash.

He said at the time it was fortunate no other vehicles were travelling through the "T" intersection at the same time, Ranford said.

"They were very lucky ... there's been a couple of fatalities on that corner."

The crash has been one of at least four to involve tour buses since December last year.

Two young tourists from Germany, Tristan Melzner and Lucas Leschok, died after their rental car was involved in a fiery collision with a tour bus on a Te Anau road on March 21.

The bus driver and tourists on board the bus escaped serious injury.

On February 22, a bus carrying cruise ship passengers and a car crashed near Akaroa, leaving two people fighting for their lives and another five injured, four seriously.

Three members of a Tongan school group travelling around the country to raise money for the school died after a horrific Christmas Eve bus crash near Gisborne.

Forty-four people were injured in the crash, including an 18-year-old boy who had his left leg amputated at the knee.

A police spokeswoman said investigations into the Gisborne and Akaroa crashes were ongoing.

"Within this investigation police will examine all the evidence regarding the road, vehicle and driver," the spokeswoman said of the Akaroa crash.