The Tūroa ski field operator has suspended another Mitsubishi Fuso bus from its transport fleet following a fatal crash yesterday afternoon.
The bus is still on its side and a salvage team will work to remove it. Photo: RNZ / Gia Garrick
A young female passenger was killed when a bus rolled and crashed coming down the Ōhakune Mountain Road from Tūroa ski field, and three other people were seriously injured.
A passenger has told RNZ News the brakes on the 1994 model bus failed.
Ruapehu Alpine Lifts CEO Ross Copland said Tūroa was closed today but said normal operations will resume tomorrow, with transport running.
However, the other Mitsubishi Fuso bus in their fleet will be suspended until the outcome of the investigation.
The possibility of a mechanical fault had not been ruled out, Mr Copland said.
He said the bus driver was treated for minor injuries at Whanganui hospital and the driver was not in a condition to speak about the incident yesterday.
The Police's serious crash unit and commercial vehicle safety team are now investigating how the cause of the accident.
"I also spoke to the Department of Conservation and the Ruapehu District Council yesterday and they've got an engineer going up on site to look at the road," said Mr Copland.
The young woman who died late last night is yet to be formally identified. She was one of 31 people on board.
A 20-year-old man, and two women, aged 29 and 31, were airlifted from the site and remain in a stable condition at Waikato Hospital.
Yesterday was Fenella Murphy's first time on the Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bus.
She said the bus sped up as it went down the Ōhakune Mountain Road before rolling and crashing into a bank.
Five minutes into the journey, the bus started making a loud honking noise, she said.
They then started to pick up speed, and every time the driver stepped on the brakes, air would gush out, she said.
"There were people at the front of the bus asking 'Are the brakes working? Are the brakes working?' There was no answer from the bus driver, I think he was just in shock and didn't know what to do.
"We figured out as soon as the bus was sort of picking up speed the brakes weren't working," she said.
Ms Murphy said she was preparing for the worst.
"[The bus] must have hit the side of the hill somewhere on the right and then flipped left and rolled, I'm not sure how many times, but we ended up on the left side of the bus.
"So I was sitting on the right hand side, so everyone on that side had fallen down on top of everyone on the other side," she said.
Ross Copland said they had a karakia at the accident site this afternoon, attended by local iwi, staff and other locals.
"An absolute tragedy when you have a loss of life, particularly a young person so our thoughts and prayers are absolutely with the family... myself and our chairman will travel up there today to meet with them, in terms of support, we will discuss that with them."
Tūroa Ski field was closed today as a sign of respect to the family of the deceased but also to give the ski field staff time to debrief.
"It was a pretty challenging thing to turn up to - a mass casualty site - and a lot of our front-line crew responded to that yesterday so it's important that we take the time to work through that."
Ruapehu District mayor Don Cameron said the community had been left shaken.
He said deaths on the mountain itself happened every few years, but rarely on the surrounding roads.
A police spokesperson said the bus has been removed taken to Whanganui to be examined.