A BUS with 50 passengers returning home from Diwali shopping went off road, tumbled down a 12-metre slope twice, and plunged into the Sigatoka River.
The incident on November 9, 1985, was reported in The Fiji Times the following day.
All passengers managed to scramble to safety from the partly submerged bus.
Seventeen passengers, a mixture of men, women, and children were rushed by passing motorists to the Sigatoka Hospital where they were treated for cuts and bruises.
Two women and a girl were admitted.
They were Ana Drekuba, 25, of Vunaqoru, Elena Buvaseu,73, and Sangeshni Lata, 9, both from Kabisi.
Hospital doctor Aida Gerona said the three were suffering from internal and facial injuries. Ms Buvaseu also had a broken right toe.
All were in satisfactory condition.
Another passenger, Shiu Balak, 47, of Rabitoga, suffered from a fractured right hand and was treated before he was sent home.
The accident happened at about 12.30pm when the Valley Buses’ 60-seater Leyland bus left the Sigatoka bus stand with 50 passengers for Keyasi in Vatumali, up the Sigatoka’s valley.
Most of the passengers had come to town for Diwali shopping.
As the bus neared Kadarakulu, just five minutes out of town, the driver, Shi Ram, 45, of Valley Road lost control of the bus.
The bus left the road, tumbled over twice down this slope, and came to rest on its wheels, with part of the right side in the water.
Before the bus veered off the road, it broke four safety poles erected on the edge of the slope and two huge branches from a nearby tree.
A passenger, Apisai Kalutaba, who was one of the first to get out of the bus after it came to a rest, said he thought he was going to die.
“Everyone was yelling and screaming,” he said.
“My wife, Vasiti, was sitting next to me and she held tight as the bus rolled over twice before coming to a halt. God, I thought that it would never stop and all of us might end up at the bottom of the river.
“I saw three children struggling in the water, and I dived in, grabbed hold of the three and swam to the bank. They were lucky that they were thrown out just near the riverbank.
“Nearly all the menfolk began helping the women and children out first and other motorists stopped to help also.”
Mr Balak, who suffered a fractured hand, was travelling with his daughter, Premila Devi, 19, with two cartons full of Diwali goods and two new wall clocks.
He lost them all.
“These things were worth over $150, and it’s all lost now,” he said
“However, I am still happy that my daughter and I have survived this accident and therefore I don’t mind this fractured hand.”
Mr Balak said he saw a child float away after the accident and managed to pull the child to the riverbank by sticking his right leg out and putting it around the child’s jaw.
One of the first people on the scene, Paras Ram, who operated the Highway Coral cabs, said it was very fortunate that no one was killed.
“There were a lot of children on the bus and the river is very deep,” Mr Ram said.
Mr Ram said there were suitcases, bags, cartons, and parcels lying on the slope and inside the bus and floating in the river.
A director of Valley Buses Ltd, Aiyub Khan, said Shiu Ram had been driving for him for over five years.
