School in mourning after pupil dies, 47 injured in bus crash

THE grounds of Michaelhouse resembled a ghost town as news of a bus crash‚ which left almost 50 pupils injured‚ spread around the school yesterday afternoon.

It would later emerge that the crash had claimed the life of a boy, Thabo Dloti‚ and left 47 others injured‚ several critically.

“Everything stopped. You could look out on the field and just see sports gear left where it stood.

“Everyone has rallied in the chapel‚” Michaelhouse spokesman Murray Witherspoon said.

He said despite having 520 boys, silence hung over the school yesterday.

“We could never imagine something like this happening when you wake up in the morning.”

It is understood that the bus was headed for Kearsney College when the driver lost control.

Four U16 soccer teams were on their way from Michaelhouse‚ at Balgowan in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands‚ to play against Kearsney‚ at Botha’s Hill‚ west of Durban.

Paramedics said the bus ploughed through the N3’s centre median coming down Town Hill towards Pietermaritzburg, en route to Durban.

The bus drove into oncoming traffic before overturning and skidding to a halt on its side.

Witherspoon said the school’s chaplain and guidance counsellor‚ as well as the rector‚ had rushed to the various hospitals where the pupils were being treated.

“At this stage, we do not know much more. We are trying to [grasp] what has happened. “One or two boys and staff [are] in surgery.” Maharaj Coaches‚ the company hired by the school‚ said the driver was highly experienced and the vehicle well maintained.