P&O takes stock after cruise ship tourists injured

VANUATU – A seventh Australian injured in a bus crash in Vanuatu capital has been flown to Brisbane for treatment, but an 11-year-old Australian boy who was critically injured remains in hospital in Noumea.

A P&O spokesman said the boy’s condition had improved and he was no longer listed as critical and had been joined by his mother and brother.

He sustained a head injury in the crash.

Three locals died and 10 Australian tourists were injured when a tour bus collided head on with another bus in Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila on Monday night.

P&O spokesman David Jones said the 11-year-old boy was the worst injured, having suffered head injuries, and he remained in hospital along with his mother and a sibling.

The latest report from the ABC says there were 12 Australian tourists on the bus and seven of those injured are now being treated in Brisbane.

Overnight a fourth medical air ambulance touched down in Brisbane with a badly injured 77-year-old man on board.

The man had broken bones but was in good spirits.

A four-year-old girl with fractures was also among the injured and she is being treated at a hospital in Brisbane.

At the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital a couple aged in their 70s are being treated for broken bones.

The dead include a pregnant local ni-Vanuatu woman and her unborn baby, and the driver of the local bus.

Meanwhile, police in Vanuatu have charged the driver of the tourist bus with one count of reckless driving causing death.

The driver is himself injured but will be taken in custody upon his release from hospital.

The group of Australians was from a P&O cruise ship and had been visiting a Vanuatu tourist attraction on a shore trip when the accident happened.

P&O’s Jones said the tour bus company was accredited and it was “an extremely unusual situation”.

“We have been cruising to Vanuatu since the mid-1970s and no-one can recall anything of this magnitude.”

“This was a huge effort by our logistics people – we had to arrange that air ambulance transport really literally out of thin air,” he said.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Federal Government was providing ongoing consular support to victims and their families.

With five air ambulances required to fly the injured travellers home, she also urged people to ensure they have insurance.

“This is a very important point – if you can’t afford travel insurance you really cannot afford to travel overseas, so it is as fundamental as taking out insurance,” she said.

P&O’s Pacific Dawn cruise ship, with almost 2000 passengers on board, had now resumed sailing and is due back in Brisbane on Saturday.

Jones also brushed aside rumours circulating that P&O Cruises planned to suspend cruise ships coming to Vanuatu.

He said: “There is no truth to the suggestion that our cruise ships would stop visiting Vanuatu.

“Just as we and our passengers supported Vanuatu after Cyclone Pam, we don’t walk away from our friends.

“P&O Cruises thanks Port Vila’s medical services for the care they have given our Pacific Dawn passengers.

“We know this has been a major event for your emergency services and health services.

“P&O Cruises also wishes to convey our deepest sympathies to the families of the local people who passed away following the accident.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with their families at this very difficult time for them.”

- PNC sources