Niël Terblanché
Emergency service from Swakopmund and Walvis Bay on Wednesday rushed to the scene of a mass casualty motor vehicle accident that occurred on the road into the Kuiseb River Canyon.
Chief Inspector Ileni Shapumb, the head of the community affairs division of the Namibian Police in the Erongo Region confirmed the incident and said that investigators have been dispatched to the scene where at least 40 tourists have been injured.
Members of the emergency services that responded to the call said that they were informed that at least one of the tourists passed away on the scene of the crash.
It is alleged that one of the buses suffered a mechanical failure on its brakes as it was about to enter the Kuiseb River Canyon and that it smashed into an oncoming bus which was also transporting a group of tourists.
After smashing into the oncoming bus on the road the bus without brakes fell over on its side before crashing into a smaller bus and a bakkie.
Some of the first responders could establish from the tourists that both these smaller vehicles were parked next to the road to enable the tourists travelling in them to take pictures of the canyon from a lookout point.
Chief Inspector Shapumba said that all available ambulances at the coast have been dispatched to the scene to assist injured tourists and to transport seriously injured people to hospitals.
He added that a detailed report of the incident will made available at a later stage.
