A student yesterday described the scary moments before a school bus hit the back of his school bus.   

Mohammed Zahid Riyaz, a Kamil Muslim College Year Nine student, said he had just boarded his school bus at Karavi to go to school, between Ba and Lautoka, when the accident happened.

Six students and a bus driver were recovering in Lautoka Hospital last night.

Riyaz said: “I had just walked into the bus and had time to see through the back window. I saw the second bus approaching.

“Everything happened so fast. One moment I saw it coming some metres away. The next it had slammed into the back of our parked bus.”

He said he was thrown backwards onto the metal part of a seat  and hurt his wrist and received scratches on his shoulder.

“I made my way out and saw students from Xavier College with blood on some of their faces,” he said.

“People started coming and helping those from the bus at the back and helping them exit through the windows as the doorway was jammed shut from the impact.”

His father, Mohammed Abu Riyaz, who runs a garage at their home nearby, said he was in the garage, heard the impact sound and immediately went to the scene.

“We helped the children get off and I went and climbed on the damaged front part of the bus and helped the driver who had some leg injuries.

“It is lucky no one died, as some of the Xavier College students were jolted to near where the driver was from the impact of the collision,” he said.

The accident between the two Lautoka General Transport buses happened before 8am with 73 students on board the buses.

The buses left Lautoka and were picking students on their way to Ba.

The students included 19 from Xavier College, 32 from Kamil Muslim College and 22 from Ba Sanatan College.

Meanwhile, Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said most of the students were treated for minor injuries and sent home.

“Only those six and the driver are still admitted in hospital,” she said. 

Edited by Naisa Koroi

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