An Aussie tourist left injured and stranded after a fatal bus crash in southern Italy has claimed the travel company only offered her a meal voucher for the inconvenience.
Australian actress Sinead Curry, who has starred in TV shows like The Haunting of Nancy Drew and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, said that nine hours following the crash, the European bus company offered her a $16 meal voucher for her troubles.
Curry and partner Salma Salah, both from Sydney, boarded the FlixBus in the city of Bari on June 3 for the long journey to the Northern city of Bologna with a transfer to Rome.
However, two hours into the trip Curry said the “bus hit something”.
“We were all asleep, it went airborne and spun around a bunch of times,” she said in a TikTok video posted the following day, showing her in hospital wearing a neck brace.
Curry told followers the bus was “flung around like in a blender” before it landed down by an embankment, which she claimed was “on the other side of the road”.
“Several cars then hit the bus moving the bus closer and closer to the side of the road,” Curry explained in her video.
Italian and German media reported the bus crash occurred near the town of Avellino, approximately 50km east of the southwest city of Naples.
Five cars were caught up in the accident and local emergency services were quoted as saying the “lifeless body of a man was found” along with 14 people sustaining injuries.
Curry said there were 38 people on the bus, including another Aussie woman called “Caity”, who suffered a broken collarbone.
After Curry was discharged from the hospital, fearing her nose was broken but was assured it was not, she made another video emphasising how she felt abandoned by the bus company.
“FlixBus none of your numbers are working,” an emotional Curry urged.
“They ring out and they hang up on us. We cannot get any information from FlixBus, we cannot get our luggage back.
“They offered us by text a 10 euro ($16) meal replacement voucher for the inconvenience.
“There are a bunch of people here who nearly died we don’t have any information.”
Curry later claimed FlixBus even blocked her on social media.
“We just want some information and some help,” she explained, complaining that she was still waiting on her luggage to be returned.
FlixBus issued a statement claiming “a support line and email” was provided to all passengers and their families following the incident.
“Outbound calls were made to passengers who had registered their mobile numbers, and emails were sent to passengers with instructions,” the bus company said.
“At all times, the safety of its passengers and drivers is of highest priority to FlixBus.”
Two days following the incident Curry received her luggage and was in Rome after an emergency shuttle had been deployed for stranded passengers.
However, she said that as they arrived in Rome, passengers were finding “shrapnel” from the crash in their bodies and she had gotten a piece out of herself.
On June 5 Curry took to TikTok again, saying she and her partner were grateful to be “safe and in Rome”.
Although safe, she did note that they were heading to the hospital to get checked again as she was suffering from “very severe headaches” and had intense pain in her jaw.
Curry then thanked the “heroes” in Italian fire and rescue, who she said took her and her partner in and gave them pasta, crackers, water and a change of clothes.
She said FlixBus had rung her twice at a later date to tell the couple to keep receipts for a full refund.
Curry jetted to Europe for her dream holiday but given the incident, she and her partner are dumping their Italian plans to recuperate in Rome.
“We are so grateful to be alive please hold your loved ones close,” she said.
Image credit: TikTok
This article first appeared on Over60.