School carnage
4WD slams into class
TWO eight-year-old boys are dead after an SUV smashed into a Sydney classroom, leaving children screaming for their parents amid a scene of “carnage”.
A Toyota Kluger driven by a 52-year-old woman hit the weatherboard building at Banksia Road Primary School in Greenacre about 9.45am yesterday. It continued through the wall and into the class of 24 Year 3 students, which was studying inside.
Onlookers rushed in to free the children pinned under wreckage, with some reportedly lifting the side of the SUV, before administering first aid until help arrived.
Paramedics arrived to “a scene of carnage” with “distressed and overwhelmed children and teachers”, NSW Ambulance superintendent Stephanie Radnidge said.
The driver has since been charged with dangerous and negligent driving.
Five of the students were initially taken to Westmead Children’s Hospital and NSW Ambulance and police later confirmed two eight-year-old boys had died of “multiple traumas”.
A nine-year-old girl is in a serious condition and two eight-year-old girls are in a stable condition.
Seventeen children and a female teacher were assessed on the ground by paramedics.
Online there was an outpouring of grief from parents.
“A whole community is mourning, we are all shocked, we are all in tears,” one woman wrote on Facebook.
“These sweet children woke up today, happy to go to school and be with their friends, mothers and fathers dressed them, giving them their last goodbye kiss not knowing about a tragedy that was coming their way.”
The driver, who did not require medical treatment, was taken to hospital for mandatory blood and urine tests.
“We’re not looking at this as an intentional act,” NSW Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said. “It is a crash investigation.”
The driver was charged last night with two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and one count of negligent driving occasioning death. Her licence has been suspended.
The woman was granted conditional bail and is scheduled to appear at Bankstown Local Court on November 29.