A BOURNEMOUTH woman was one of three people to die in a crash in South Africa when a tour company bus overturned.

As reported in the Daily Echo, Valerie Whiteman, who was 73, sustained a brain injury in the crash, which happened in Lesotho, close to the border, on September 28.

She was rushed to Machabeng Hospital for treatment, but died soon after her arrival.

Mrs Whiteman, who had been away with husband Creighton, had been travelling through South African with tour company Intrepid Travel.

A 64-year-old woman from New Zealand, who has been named as schoolteacher Joanne Joss, and the 52-year-old Zimbabwean-born driver also died in the tragedy, which happened at 8.55am local time.

The overland touring truck had been carrying 15 travellers and two members of staff when it left the road near Qacha’s Nek.

James Thornton, Intrepid's CEO, said senior staff from the company's local operations base in Johannesburg, as well as their incident response team in Melbourne, have been providing support and assistance to travellers and their families.

Intrepid has also offered counselling to all travellers and staff involved in the accident.

Mr Thornton said: “We are devastated by what’s happened in Lesotho.

"Our first concern has been to provide support to the travellers and staff involved in the accident and their families.

"We’ll continue to do all that is possible to that end.

"Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy."

An inquest into Mrs Whiteman's death was opened and adjourned in Bournemouth on Tuesday.

It was heard that she lived in Chigwell Road, Bournemouth and had been on holiday when she was involved in the collision.

A post-mortem examination was carried out on October 24 after Mrs Whiteman's body was repatriated to the UK.

The cause of death was found to be a traumatic brain injury due to a skull fracture.

The full inquest was adjourned until April 16 next year.