Gifts help injured students
Donations have flooded in for five students injured near school.
The five — four Westlake Girls and one Westlake Boys high school student — were injured on September 20 after a car mounted the footpath on Wairau Rd and crashed into them at a bus stop.
Witnesses reported seeing the young people flung in the air and the car was removed from the scene with a badly damaged bonnet. The scene was so distressing students who witnessed the incident were offered counselling.
Police this week said investigations were ongoing and would not comment further. No charges have been laid against the driver, who was seen helping students after the crash.
One girl was hospitalised at Starship in a critical condition and three weeks on, she remains in hospital. Two others have been discharged, Westlake Girls principal Jane Stanley said this week.
The two schools held a collection for the injured students, and local businesses and community groups donated items, she said.
“Gifts and funds raised have been distributed to the students and their families, along with cards and messages of support,” she said.
The Uniform Group had replaced the students’ uniforms and PB Tech supplied new laptops and accessories to the hospitalised Westlake Girls students.
Head of education at PB Tech, Stan Fosenbauer, said the company was keen to replace the girls’ damaged laptops.
“When I was contacted by the school, they said we have three students in hospital — and we put a donation together for them. We just wanted to be the good guys here,” Fosenbauer said.
The laptops were delivered to the school, rather than directly to the students’ families. “We didn’t really want to go and see them because they have too much to deal with on their own.”
In a letter to the school, Stanley said the community support had been “heartwarming” and she extended her thanks to schools that held mufti days to raise money, and to local businesses that donated gifts.
Stanley had visited the students in hospital, and in a newsletter to the school’s parents said the teenagers were “bearing up well in the circumstances”.