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At least 80 people could be dead Thursday after a traffic accident in a dam outside Bethlehem in central South Africa, about 250 km south of Johannesburg.
According to the South African Press Association, the 90 passengers are all members of Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) in Northern Cape province, who were on the way to a May Day rally in Qwa Qwa.
Free State police spokesman senior Superintendent Sam Sesing, on his way to the scene, said that according to information five bodies had been retrieved from the dam by rescue workers and 10 others had been hospitalized.
He said that in the early hours of the morning, the bus driver apparently lost his way in Bethlehem and ended up driving along a gravel road.
"According to information, unknown to the driver the road led to a big dam outside Bethlehem. The bus is under water and rescue operations are under way at the moment."
South Africa has the best road infrastructure on the continent, but the country has a poor record compared with other countries inthe death rate and cost in the traffic accidents due to the high speed of the car.
(Xinhua News Agency May 2, 2003)
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