I've experienced yet another scary experience in new zealand... less than 2 months since last accident.
I was in Queenstown for ski. ( tho I'm not going to elaborate more of the ski-ing experience, but I gotta tell you ski is hell lots of fun ! I took 2 beginner's lessons and i daresay I can ski quite abit already ! haha ) . Whatever , I took a coach bus that's suppose to deliver us to the ski field from the town and fetch us back at the end of the day. The accident happened on the way back from the ski field.
It was about 4.30pm . Temperature about freezing or below freezing point. Our coach was leaving the mountain and we are actually going downhill . It would normally take 40 minutes to descend from the top of the mountain where the ski field is, to the bottom of the mountain thru quite a steep road , with lots of sharp turnings. ( actually the speed limit for the corners are all about 25 to 35 km/h , imagine how sharp the turning is ) .
Since the way down is only one-lane with no passing, vehicles practically have to queue and follow the front car slowly. What happenned was , the car infront of us was braking continously for no reason. Our driver has been trying to slow down the bus by slowly braking. However, there's one instance where the car infront of us slowed down too much, our bus nearly hit it. In an effort to try to avoid crashing to the front car, our driver stepped on the brake as much as he could. As the road is frozen with ice ( i guess it's called black ice ) , our bus's rear wheels lost control and started to slide on the road's icy surface. Our driver counter-steered the bus and it slid to the right side of the road , towards the mountain ...
Right before that moment , I was actually dozing off on the bus. I was a bit tired after the whole day's fun at the ski field. I heard screamings from the other passengers on the bus. The next thing I know, I raised my head, I saw our bus missed the front car by inch, then our bus started sliding sideways ( not the fast sort, it happenned slowly ) . More screamings , and to our horror, , we actually realised that we are going to fall down the mountain. The bus sort of stopped and halted by the steel wires fence at the side , with the front tyre almost out of the road.
The front passenger stood up, shouted to the back of the bus so that everyone dont panic and stay still. At the moment, we dont know how long of the bus is actually hanging on the mountain. So all our concern was if the passengers at the back of the bus all rush to the front exit , the bus might fall . ( I was right at the middle of the bus ) . After a few seconds where the bus seems to have no more movement, the driver told us it is save to get down the bus.
The fence of steel wire has saved us all. We went down the bus, and the driver explained to us what had happened. Our bus blocked the whole road and whole mountain's ski-ers have to wait behind our bus. The driver called the ski-field and they came to tow the bus. We waited at the roadside for about one hour before the tow-er came. They accessed the damage of the bus and they confirmed that it is safe for us to board the bus again. ( well, frankly, I'm not very convinced at that time ). The driver reassured us and he drove extremely slow and got us down the mountain.
The moment when the bus is slidding towards the mountain, all I thought was how can I survive . I was thinking of holding onto something so that when the bus is turning, I wont be falling here and there. In addition, I was thinking of covering my head with my jacket so that I wont get hit by sharp things. Survivor instinct ! And , the thought of .. " Is this the end of my life " really occured to me.
Well, I hope the saying " da nan bu si, bi you hou fu" is true. Then I'll have 2 times of hou fu !
Let's see the photos that I took while waiting for the tow truck
Saved by the fence. NOT all of the parts of the road has fence ... luckily there are fences at the place the accident took place.
Blocking the whole road
View from further away
I'll never forget how these have save my life.
very very strong steel... it stopped the whole bus from sliding further
just how steep it is ... and it is a very very long way down ...
all of the passengers
the truck ... fitted with ice-chain ( to gain more grip on the icy road surface , fancy our bus didnt have that one !! )
well , since I'm not dead.. I should be feeling happy and take a photo down , right ? LOL
that's about all . the next day we actually drove to milford sound ... risking avalanche and driving on the icy roads with our own car. Thanks see hon for driving carefully ( it is very very very tiring to concentrate so much on driving on that road conditions )and got us in and out of the place safely !
sign off ,
Xu Shen , 0
Atlantiz.
P/S : Going back soon !!
