Bus-Train Collision Kills 18, Injures 84 in South Africa

Eighteen people were killed and 84 were injured Friday when a bus collided with a train at a railroad crossing, South African Transport Services reported. All the victims were black.

The transport service said the bus driver appeared to have fled the scene of the accident, but bus company officials later said they were told that the driver was admitted to a nearby hospital.

The accident occurred about 30 miles west of Pretoria when the bus collided at a level crossing with the first of two joined electric locomotives pulling freight cars, the South African Press Assn. reported.

The news agency said that each year about 20 people are killed and 120 are injured in an average of 200 similar accidents at grade crossings. There are 3,300 such crossings remaining in the country, and the government has spent about $3.75 million each year since 1960 constructing bridges, underpasses and detours around them, SAPA said.