Bus driver dies despite Kiwi's heroic rescue

Bill Begg

Renowned skating coach Bill Begg, involved in a fatal bus crash in South Africa, has told how he revived the injured driver only to see him die by the time they reached a hospital three hours later.

Mr Begg, 59, had broken fingers, abrasions to his legs and was bleeding from a cut to the head but ignored his injuries to pull trapped and injured people from the flooded wreckage until emergency services arrived.

The bus, carrying 23 passengers and two drivers, crashed in the early hours of Monday as the group travelled from Cape Town on a national highway in the Free State province, more than 500km south-west of Johannesburg. Three people died.

Mr Begg, who has coached world champion inline skaters, had been on a coaching tour with skaters from South Africa, Italy and Holland.

They were travelling with top South African roller sport administrator Willie van Heerden and his wife Madeleine, both killed in the crash.

Mr Begg had been a close friend of the couple for 30 years and was sitting behind them on the bus.

He was due to return home next Wednesday but will stay in South Africa for their funerals.

Speaking from hospital, Mr Begg said nobody on the bus was wearing a seatbelt when a tyre blew out, causing the vehicle to cross the road and plunge 15 metres into a small dam.

Mr Begg, sitting in the second row of seats from the front, said he locked his arms around the seat in front of him and braced his upper body.

"It was the fourth or fifth time I'd been in a rolled vehicle. I didn't panic. My legs and that were flying around but the top of my body was staying with the seat, so I only got a minor cut behind the head."

The bus rolled on its side and slid through a rocky river bed before coming to a stop.

Mr Begg waded through half a metre of water that had filled the bus and found one of the two bus drivers lying face down in the dam.

Mr Begg said he became tangled up in a barbed wire fence as he tried to save the man.

"I dragged him out of there and revived him. I thought he was dead at first but he started coughing and spluttering. I had to [perform CPR] to get the water out. I got another one of the boys on the trip to help me. [The driver] had neck injuries and head injuries.

"We went back in the bus and one girl was trapped and had a broken pelvis and broken leg. Another guy a fractured skull."

Mr Begg said he helped to drag the injured through the water, over rocks, and up the bank to the roadside. He found the other driver nursing a broken arm and smoking a cigarette.

"I thought he must have been in the [dam] and was looking for him everywhere. He didn't even look for his co-driver. He went AWOL and I was not impressed because he should have helped evacuate the bus. We had to find the key to turn it off because the bus was still running and we didn't want it to catch fire.

"I was trying to get everyone moving and organised, keep people warm and find blankets. I think us Kiwis are a bit more resilient that way.

"We had some Continentals [Europeans] on the trip that weren't hurt and a couple of them didn't want to be seen in action at all, which was disappointing."

At least 200 cars passed the accident site but only two stopped. One was carrying relatives of the injured passengers, including the van Heerden's daughter, Wendy.

The first ambulance arrived an hour after the accident, said Mr Begg. It was followed by 14 more ambulances and nine police cars.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Bloemfontein, 130km away.

"The driver that I had revived was still alive three hours after the crash but he has since died," said Mr Begg.

Bill Begg

* Former New Zealand representative who is renowned in the rollerskating world.

* Has coached professionally in Colombia, Australia and Italy - taking competitors to world championship medals.

* Received a Prime Minister's coaching scholarship in 2003.

* Married to three-time world speed skating champion Sheryl Begg and father of Nicole, a junior champion inline skater.