Hospital bus driver loads up with booze

As the sun set, the last rays danced over the windscreen of the small bus. For the patients on their way back home, it had been a very long and stressful day.

As the driver came around a bend in the road just outside Ladysmith, a terrible sight greeted the passengers. A truck carrying alcohol had overturned, spilling its load onto the road.

One passenger noticed the driver slowing down, and assumed that he was stopping to see if anyone had been injured. What he did next, however, infuriated and shocked the passenger utterly and completely.

“We were all tired. The bus had left Newcastle early on Thursday morning for Pietermaritzburg,” said the passenger. “It was getting late and we all just wanted to get home.”

The driver stopped the bus, and allegedly started loading alcohol into the back of the bus, even handing bottles to other patients through the windows.

“I was so scared. There were so many people running towards the truck, taking as much as they could carry,” claimed the passenger.

The Newcastle Provincial Hospital put the shuttle service between Newcastle and Pietermaritzburg in place as a service for patients who needed tests and procedures, but could not afford to travel. As the medical facilities in Newcastle do not offer most of these tests and procedures, this bus service is crucial.

‘The actions of this driver placed all of these patients at risk. Some of them were coming back from some very serious medical tests, and they were already stressed,” said a concerned resident.

Sabelo Buthelezi, the communications officer for the Newcastle Provincial Hospital, referred the matter to the EMRS department as well as to the Health Department’s district office.

“The reason behind that is that the EMRS unit is now a stand-alone entity, it doesn’t fall under Newcastle Hospital anymore. They will have to conduct their own investigation and respond thereafter,” he concluded.