Survivors unaware of fellow students’ deaths

WITS University students, who survived the horrific car crash in Limpopo at the weekend, were still unaware last night that seven of their fellow students had died in the accident.

“The surviving students are going to need support. They don ’ t know their colleagues are no more. They are talking and they complained of pain in the area where they were injured,” said Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu yesterday.

“Like young people they are reading magazines and talking on the phones. They can't remember much about the accident because it happened fast.” Mahlangu visited four of the six injured students at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital where they were transferred to from Polokwane for further specialised treatment. Mahlangu said she was happy the survivors were in a stable condition.

The students were travelling back to Johannesburg from a ZCC pilgrimage in Moletjie, outside Polokwane. The accident happened when a Toyota Quantum they were travelling in, hit the rear of an overturned trailer of a tractor along the N1 south near Mokopane on Sunday night.

The driver and seven passengers were burned inside the taxi, while the body of another passenger was found outside with the head cut off. One of the injured student has been discharged from the Polokwane hospital, while another one was transferred to a private hospital in Limpopo. The survivors were accompanied by a large delegation of elderly men sent by the church.

Students, who held a night vigil at the university last night, said they were still in shock.