Buses carrying Chinese tourists veer off New Zealand road in 2 crashes at the same spot. 15 hurt

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Two buses carrying Chinese tourists veered off the same stretch of road in perilous weather conditions on New Zealand’s South Island on Thursday, with 15 passengers taken to hospital, two of them seriously hurt.

The buses were traveling in the same direction on a stretch of highway popular with tourists when they slid from the road and overturned, at about the same time and only 100 meters (109 yards) apart, New Zealand’s police said in an emailed statement. Temperatures in the area were freezing and others driving on the highway reported heavy fog and black ice on the road at the time.

Their cause was not known, New Zealand officials said. A spokesperson would not confirm the nationality of those on board but the Chinese consulate in Christchurch told The Associated Press by email that the buses were carrying Chinese tourists.

The local ambulance service said 15 people were taken to hospital, two by helicopter in a serious condition. Eight of those hospitalized were moderately hurt and five had minor injuries. Officials did not say how many others were treated at the scene or how many people were on the buses.

No other vehicles were involved in the crashes. The road remained closed several hours later, with no alternate routes available.

Grace Duggin, an Australian tourist, was traveling in a car behind one of the buses and saw it veer off the road, rolling multiple times before landing in a field. Conditions before the crash were made treacherous by slippery black ice, she said, which regularly closes the South Island’s tourist highways in winter.

One man pulled bloodied passengers out through a hatch in the roof of the bus, Duggin said.

“It was mostly the little kids who had severe head