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Saturday, November 19, 1988 Fiji Times A carload of desperate passengers reportedly attacked the driver in a frantic attempt to get home, forced him into the car and pushed it into floodwaters, eventually nearly submerging it at Wailotua in Wainibuka.
The 50 passengers have been stranded in Nayavu, Tailevu since the morning of November 18.
They came from the west in a Sunbeam Transport bus but could not cross the bridge as the Nayawu Bridge was submerged in more than three metres of water.
At 6am on Saturday, as floodwaters continued to rise, passengers agreed to cross the river, resulting in a passenger exchange between stranded buses on either side of the bridge.
Sunbeam bus driver Permal Gounder (52) left his home in Suva at 6.30am on Friday, November 18, and set off at 9am on Saturday with the bus full of exchange passengers.
Five kilometres from Nayavu, they were trapped again at the Wailotua bridge when floodwaters reached about two and a half metres high.
“I want to go to a nearby store and get something to eat,” he said.
“I grabbed my bag and keys and walked to the back of the bus when three men (passengers) came and attacked me.”
Mr Gund said he tried to fend off the punches but he was scared and was pushed back into the bus and into the driver’s seat. “They wanted me to drive through the flood waters, saying there was no milk or food for the children and babies. They said they would push the bus across the bridge.”
Mr Goode said he was too frightened to resist and could only sit at the wheel and watch the men push the bus into the floodwaters.
When they realized the water on the bridge was too deep to push any further, they abandoned the vehicle.
The driver said the water inside the car was waist-deep when he tried to get out.
He rented a bilibili (bamboo raft) to reach the land.
By this time, all the passengers had arrived on the Suva side by bamboo raft and boarded the waiting city transport buses.
Mr Goode said he, another driver and two inspectors went to a nearby store where they had their first meal in 28 hours and spent Saturday night there.
Nearby villagers offered tea and food to the trapped passenger, but he said he refused to eat anything.
Mr Goode said he was heading back to Suva on Friday but the train encountered flooding at Nayavoo but the passengers did not want to return.
He said his partners woke up at 5 a.m. on November 20 to check on the situation.
They found that the bus was almost submerged by the flood and all the glass windows were smashed.
As of noon on Sunday, the floodwaters had receded and the bus had been towed to higher ground.
As the bus’ engine, gearbox and fuel tank were soaked by the flood water, the oil had to be drained and filtered before the vehicle could be driven back to Suva.
Mr Gund arrived home at 9pm on Sunday, nearly 62 hours after he left home on Friday morning.
A spokesman for Sunbeam Transport in Suva estimated the damage to the bus at about $600.
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