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A horror coach smash which left 15 Korean tourists injured - five seriously - has left the group determined to leave New Zealand for the safety of their own country.
Three people lost their arms and another suffered serious spinal and head injuries as the coach overturned around midday, south of Tokoroa on State Highway 1. The rest of the 17-strong group, including the driver, a pregnant woman and the tour guide, were also hurt.
After hearing of the carnage, transport safety Minister Harry Duynhoven said last night he wanted to make seatbelts compulsory in all new tour buses. "I'd be in favour of seatbelts, like many other countries," he said.
The tour group had only been in the country a matter of hours and were on their way from Auckland to Taupo for a day's sightseeing.
Tour guide David Chin, who suffered bruising and cuts to his arm, said there appeared to be no clear explanation why the 30-seater tour bus had suddenly left the road.
"The weather had been perfect and visibility had been perfect on a straight stretch of road," he said.
Chin said the driver had lost control after drifting into loose metal. When he tried to right the bus, it tipped on its side and slid along the road before coming to a halt.
Bodies, he said, were "flying everywhere" amid fears several passengers had died. The worst injured was Chang Young Hee, 18, who was airlifted to Waikato Hospital. She was in critical condition, possibly having lost an arm.
"Everyone was very shaken. It was a very scary experience - and a bad way to start a holiday," Chin said. The week-long tour had now been cancelled and many of the group would return home in the next few days. He said the crash had been so traumatic none of the group would likely return to New Zealand.
"Everyone was screaming. There was blood all over the place. It was so horrible," said Boon Sun Park. "We just hope our friends make it. It's a terrible time for all of us."
Sun Park, three months pregnant, said she had been sleeping, but said she got a huge jolt when the bus tipped over and began careering down the highway. "I didn't know what was happening. There was just screams and blood. It was so scary."
She was "hugely relieved" when doctors at Tokoroa Hospital had given her and her baby the all-clear but was worried about those seriously injured. "I am just hoping they make it," she said. Her partner, Feel Young Koo, cut and bruised, said they had planned an exciting few days in New Zealand and were shellshocked by what had happened. "We are lucky to be alive, I think," he said.
Dong Kim Huh, who suffered whiplash and cuts to the side of his head, remembered being thrown from his seat and the "terrifying" moments that followed. He said everyone was screaming as panic set in. "It's just lucky we are alive."
When the bus flipped onto its side, it would have thrown passengers on top of each other towards the road. The windows along the ground-facing side shattered. Senior sergeant Murray Hamilton of Taupo police said: "Without seat belts holding them into place, people would've been falling all over the place."
The bus is part of the Smile Coach fleet, part-owned and registered to North Shore businessman Kwang Jin Kim. While 90 per cent of tour operators belong to the industry body, the Bus and Coach Association, Smile Coach does not.
It is a new company on the tourist circuit. It was registered in September last year and the bus involved in the crash passed its Certificate of Fitness just a month later.
Sylvia Whibley, among the first to arrive at the crash scene, said "chaos" was the only way to describe it. She was travelling to a wedding with her son Nigel, a paramedic from Te Awamutu. He left the car and went to help. "I haven't seen him since."
She said that an hour after the crash, rescue workers were still trying to cut people from the wreck.
Craig Scott, 27, the St John Ambulance officer in charge, said the language barrier made the situation more difficult, as did having so many patients to treat at once. He said the horror of this accident was "pretty well up there".
Tokoroa Volunteer Fire Service deputy fire chief Dave Morris said major accidents on SH1 were not new to Tokoroa emergency staff but this one was different because of the number of people involved. He said Tokoroa fire officers, with the Taupo fire brigade, used airbags and hydraulics to lift the bus far enough off the ground to free the three people trapped in the bus, three of whom had severed arms.
John Collyns, chair of the Bus and Coach Association, said most new coaches on the road were fitted with seatbelts, but retrofitting older coaches would be too expensive - $30 million for 2500 school buses.
"The statistics for bus safety are endless. You're 17 times safer in a school bus than in the parents' car," said Collyns.
"Generally speaking we have a great safety record, which we're proud of. I'm very sorry to hear that people were hurt."
Collyns said the association's 464 members drive more than 6000 vehicles, around 90 per cent of the country's operators.
He said most visitors to New Zealand from Asia travelled by bus from Auckland to Waitomo, then to Rotorua and back to Auckland - with diversions to Huka Falls.
Collyns said the Christchurch route took visitors from the Garden City to Queenstown then Milford.
- additional reporting Jared Savage, Miles Erwin and Michelle Coursey.
