Australian pleads for help after Italy bus crash, company offers voucher for ‘inconvenience’

A bus company offered passengers meal vouchers after their vehicle collided with cars and rolled down an embankment.

Sinead Curry had to crawl out of a bus wreck after it crashed into cars and rolled down an embankment on her way to Rome. Picture: Tiktok

An Australian woman who was involved in a fatal bus crash in Italy has made a desperate plea for help after the company that owned the wrecked vehicle offered little more than a meal voucher “for the inconvenience”.

Sydney woman Sinead Curry was travelling on a FlixBus through in the southern region of Italy early hours of Sunday morning, local time, when the bus crashed and rolled off the road.
Ms Curry said the passengers, including her partner and another Australian woman they met on board, were asleep when the bus hit something and “went airborne”.

“(It) spun around a bunch of times,” she recounted in a video posted to social media. “We were all being flung around like in a blender.”

The incident happened on the Canosa-Naples motorway, near the town of Avellino, about 50 kilometres east of the southwest coastal city of Naples. The bus was heading to Rome.

The regional fire and rescue department Vigili del Fuoco said five cars and the bus, carrying 36 passengers and two drivers, were involved in the collision.

🔴 #Avellino, dalle 4.30 #vigilidelfuoco impegnati sulla A16, al Km 150, per un incidente stradale: coinvolto un pullman, con 38 passeggeri a bordo, e 5 auto: rinvenuto il corpo senza vita di un uomo, 14 i feriti. Operazioni in corso per escludere altri coinvolti [#4giugno 9:00] pic.twitter.com/hQFhHkIfFi

— Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) June 4, 2023

The “lifeless body” of one man was found at the scene and 14 people were injured in the crash, two seriously, and taken to hospital.

The deceased man was a passenger in one of two cars involved in a rear-end collision which sparked the tragic chain of events, local media outlets reports. It is not clear whether he was killed in the incident or in subsequent collision between the bus and the two cars.

Local fire fighters had to pull the FlixBus from the embankment. Picture: Twitter

Ms Curry told ABC News the bus swerved to avoid hitting another car, which caused it to roll. She said the bus passengers crawled through the broken windows to escape the wreck, but when they were sheltering behind the it other cars started to hit it.

“We had to wait at least half an hour for anyone to come. Everyone was screaming in their native language,” she told the broadcaster.

In her TikTok video, Ms Curry – still wearing a neck brace and had a cannula inserted in her hand – said she was concerned for the wellbeing of a third Australian named “Katie” who had a suspected “broken collar bone” from the accident, but was not in hospital.

Ms Curry made a plea for help from hospital. Picture: TikTok

She took video from the site of the incident. Picture: TikTok

Ms Curry said FlixBus, whose vehicle rolled in the crash, provided passengers little assistance or information on the incident and their next steps.

She said their phone lines were not working – “they ring out and they hang up on us” – she had no information on how to get her luggage back.

FlixBus did, however, offer her a meal replacement voucher worth 10 euros (about $16) “for the inconvenience”.

In a follow-up video from beside the recovered bus wreck, Ms Curry said the company had allegedly “blocked” her on social media.

The wrecked bus that passengers had to recover their luggage from. Picture: TikTok

“So rather than assist and give us information, FlixBus have blocked me,” she said.

“I’m only one of the passengers, a lot of us are really upset that we haven’t been communicated with or helped – that no one reached out to us in a phone call to ask if we were alive.”

Ms Curry told the ABC when someone from the company met with affected passengers, “he was happy-go-lucky, making jokes”.

“All of us are scared for life,” she said.

“We had no food, no water, no support until the local fire service took us in.

“Those who survived need to be offered adequate financial compensation for this near-fatal, permanently harmful traumatic event.”

Nine hours after the crash Ms Curry said she and her partner had recovered some of their luggage – what was not “ruined” in the crash – and had made it to Rome.

The bus wreck was lifted to a truck. Picture: Twitter

One person was killed and 14 others injured in the incident on Sunday morning. Picture: Twitter

News.com.au approached Ms Curry for comment, and requested a response from FlixBus about the crash, the issues raised by Ms Curry, and the compensation being offered to passengers.

“FlixBus is maintaining close contact to all authorities on site and closely co-operating with them to investigate the causes of the event,” a spokeswoman told ABC in a statement.

“FlixBus has provided a support line and email for passengers and their families. Outbound calls were made to passengers who had registered their mobile numbers, and emails were sent to passengers with instructions.”

Ms Curry told the ABC she only received a series of text messages – one containing the $16 meal voucher and another providing a telephone helpline number – and the only email she received was to alert her to the “technical difficulties” the company’s helpline was experiencing.

“At all times, the safety of its passengers and drivers is of highest priority to FlixBus,” the spokeswoman said.

FlixBus’ Terms and Conditions of Carriage state customers are entitled to compensation “per passenger and luggage item” in the event of an accident.

“In the case of damage to luggage items resulting from an accident involving the bus, or loss of luggage items resulting from the same, the level of compensation per damage claim per passenger and luggage item shall be limited to €1,200 (just over A$1944).”

Originally published as Australian pleads for help after Italy bus crash, company offers voucher for ‘inconvenience’