SURVIVORS of a fatal bus crash re-lived the terror of the vehicle’s 30 metre plunge into a ravine in Kangaroo Valley.
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They said the driver, a 58-year-old from Bringelly, who was killed in the Friday-night accident, yelled to the passengers from Sydney’s Polish community to “brace yourselves” because there were “brake problems” as the bus careered towards a sharp bend on the Moss Vale Road.
The driver was killed when he was thrown out of the front window as the bus crashed through a metal safety fence on Moss Vale Road at Barrengarry Mountain and bounced off trees as it slid down the embankment.
The 28 passengers were volunteer carers for the sick and disabled attached to the Polish Australian Welfare Association at Ashfield on their way to a weekend educational retreat in Kangaroo Valley.
The most critically injured was a 70-year-old male with head, neck, chest, arm, abdominal and pelvic injuries.
He was airlifted to Liverpool Hospital where he was downgraded yesterday from a critical to a serious but stable condition.
A St George Hospital spokesperson said a 57-year-old and a 17-year-old female were airlifted from the crash scene and are in a stable condition.
Retired Ingleburn policeman Edward Swiader, 66, said they had been driving downhill for 20 minutes when there was a heavy smell, which he thought was the brakes overheating.
“People yelled out ‘slow down’, and the driver replied ‘we are having brake problems’.”
Mr Swiader saw the front door was smashed in, so he kicked open a window and used the light from his mobile phone to help his wife, Diep, 63, and sister, Emilia Malecki, 58, and six other people out.
Moss Vale man Scott Friedewald was one of the first on the scene.
Mr Friedewald was driving back from his uncle’s funeral in Bomaderry with friends when he arrived at the crash at 7.45pm.
He and three friends helped about a dozen of the injured passengers up the hill and tried to calm them down.
“When we got there a few ambulances had just arrived and it was pretty chaotic,” he said.
“A lot of the passengers were panicking. We left at about 9.15pm after helping where we could.”
NSW Ambulance said 16 had minor injuries and 10 suffered serious injuries.
Patients were taken to Wollongong and Shoalhaven Hospitals but none to Bowral Hospital.
Moss Vale Road was blocked from both ends but was re-opened on Saturday.
The bus was towed to Albion Park Police Station where it will undergo a mechanical examination.
Any witnesses to the crash should contact Shoalhaven Police on 1800 333 000.
