Pedestrian blamed as eight Britons killed in bus crash

Witnesses say man played 'Russian roulette' with tour bus on steep mountain road through national park

Eight British holidaymakers were killed when their minibus overturned after a pedestrian, apparently playing "Russian roulette" with oncoming vehicles, leapt in front of their vehicle near a national park in South Africa.

Eight British holidaymakers were killed when their minibus overturned after a pedestrian, apparently playing "Russian roulette" with oncoming vehicles, leapt in front of their vehicle near a national park in South Africa.

The pedestrian, who was believed to be mentally ill, jumped out as the minibus negotiated a steep and winding road in the Royal Natal National Park. Five men and three women in the minibus died. The South African driver and tour guide, two British travellers and a Canadian woman escaped with minor injuries and were discharged from Ladysmith Hospital after treatment.

South Africa has an appalling road safety record. President Thabo Mbeki promised seven months ago that the government would make improvements after the death of 51 people in a bus crash.

Captain Joshua Gwala of the KwaZulu-Natal Police said the pedestrian, Pelepele Miya, 20, was mentally ill and had been seen running in and out of the road. "[He] may have been deliberately jumping in front of traffic. It was like he was playing some sort of Russian roulette," he added. Witnesses said Mr Miya had been talking of suicide only minutes before the crash on Wednesday afternoon.

The Britons who died were identified as Roger Pearce, 60, and his wife Linda, 49, from Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, Neil Pike, 35, and Christine Rowe, 30, a couple from Preston, Lancashire, Anthony Egan, 65, originally from Canada but living in Surbiton, Surrey, and Thomas Harris, 65, from Cardiff, south Wales. A married couple from Maidstone in Kent, also died when the vehicle overturned but their names were not disclosed. Consular officials in Pretoria were still trying to contact their relatives last night.

Six of the victims died at the scene of the accident and two died later.

Mr Egan, a retired physicist and keen mountain climber, was holidaying with his 61-year-old wife, Sonia Wilhoft, a former teacher who survived the accident. Andrew Robertson, 58, was the other British survivor.

Mr Pearce, a retired eye surgeon at Watford General Hospital, had chosen the holiday with his wife to celebrate his 60th birthday. Norman Sadler, a friend, said: "They were a lovely couple, very fun-loving and very much a family unit." Their daughters Nicola, an 18-year-old student, Claire, 23, a teacher, and Victoria, 25, an occupational therapist, were joined by their grandfather Frederick Turner and uncle Geoffrey Pearce for the reading of a brief tribute yesterday.

"The family are shocked and saddened by the tragic deaths of Roger and Linda ... It is tragic that [the holiday] has ended in this way and has left three daughters and their granddad distressed and distraught by something that has happened so suddenly."

The tour group was on a 16-day walking safari run by Exodus, a travel company, and was heading for a trek in the park.

Royal Natal National Park is home to some of the Drakensberg Mountains' most dramatic scenery, including the Amphitheatre, a rock wall that stretches for three miles.

Exodus's managing director, David Gillespie, has flown to South Africa to offer help to survivors and relatives. Further assistance is being provided by the acting high commissioner, Andy Sparkes, and a consular official.

"Our hearts go out to the relatives of all those involved," an Exodus spokesman, Powell Ettinger, said. "We are going to be running a full investigation into what happened. We work with licensed operators. Safety is uppermost in our minds for all of our holidays."

The bus was negotiating the treacherous and frequently misty R74 road when the crash happened near the Amphitheatre Lodge guesthouse between Harrismith and Bergville.

"A man was walking around telling people he wanted to kill himself but no one took him seriously," a witness, Buyisiwe Miya, said. "Suddenly I saw him in the road walking in front of cars. Most cars were stopping or going round him. The bus tried to avoid him but the trailer hit him.

"The bus swerved across the road and into a ditch. I was so scared I had to leave. I saw bodies lying in the road."

South Africa's Transport Minister, S'bu Ndebele, said an investigation was under way, and the Mercedes Benz Sprinter minibus was being tested for mechanical failures.

The crash appears to vindicate the tough stance taken over the festive season by KwaZulu-Natal's traffic authorities against jaywalkers, who are said to be a major cause of accidents on the province's roads.

On Tuesday 175 pedestrians were arrested along freeways in and around Durban and Pietermaritzburg and charged under the jaywalking campaign.

South Africa has the continent's most extensive and modern road network, but safety is a serious problem. There are about 500,000 accidents a year resulting in 10,000 deaths.

In September 1999, 26 British tourists and their African guide were killed when their tour bus skidded off a wet road and down a mountain side on the notoriously treacherous Long Tom Pass near Mpumalanga. Earlier that year five British tourists were among 10 people killed when a bus skidded off a rain-soaked road at Piet Retief.

In May last year 51 people were killed when a bus taking trade unionists to a May Day celebration plunged into the Saulspoort dam near Bethlehem after the driver took a wrong turn in foggy conditions.

After that crash President Mbeki promised measures to avoid a repeat. "What happened at the Saulspoort dam should not happen again," he told mourners at a mass funeral.