Pupils mowed down by truck
There was nothing I could do to prevent the accident, says distraught driver
TWO young pupils died in a horror accident outside their Rocklands school yesterday, when an eight-ton truck ploughed into them as they ran across the road to a waiting taxi. Just minutes later, the shocked father of one of the little boys stared in disbelief at the body of his son lying in the road – his shoes, ripped off by the force of the impact, a few metres away.
Ankervas Primary School Grade 4 pupils Bulelani Ndarala and Siviwe Mbetshu, of KwaNobuhle, both 10, were killed instantly when the truck, transporting fertiliser, mowed them down in Rocklands Road near Uitenhage just after school ended at about 2pm.
Siviwe’s stunned father, Welcome Mbetshu, held his head in his hands, his gaze locked on the children lying in the road.
“I don’t know. I am just so shocked. I just don’t know what to say. I must still go home and tell my wife. She is going to be totally torn up,” he said.
The visibly traumatised truck driver, Ryno Scholtz, 25, said he had tried to avoid hitting the boys.
“They ran out of nowhere. I was driving and there was a car parked outside the school waiting to pull across the road. The next thing, two children ran behind the car and straight across the road,” he said.
“I tried to brake but there just was not any time. I could not swerve as there were oncoming cars and on the opposite side there were more children. I could only go forward and stop.”
Scholtz managed to stop about 10m ahead and jumped out to check on the boys, who had been flung about 5m.
“It was too late. They were already gone by that stage,” he said, fighting back the tears.
“I feel terrible, but there was nothing I could do,” Scholtz said.
Bulelani’s distraught grandfather, Dan Yoli, 65, arrived minutes after the accident. His mother, Mandaisa, alerted by the school, got there just seconds before.
“When I got here, I saw her [Mandaisa] walking into the school crying,” Yoli said,
staring in horror at the children’s covered bodies lying in the road.
“If the driver [of the taxi] had just parked on the other side of the road, the children would not have had to run across,” he said.
“I am very, very mad. If he [the taxi driver] had just used his common sense, none of this would have happened. Now my grandson is gone. It is unfair and wrong,” Yoli said.
A man believed to be the taxi driver refused to comment.
“He must answer. He must tell us why he parked on the other side of the road,” Yoli yelled, as the man walked to his vehicle.
School body corporate representative Adel Harris, who was at the scene, said she could not comment until all the internal procedures had been completed.
“We can’t say anything at this stage. At the time, there were a lot of children standing in front of the school waiting for their lifts.
“They all witnessed it, but we cannot let you talk to the minors,” she said. Harris said the pupil transport was arranged by the parents and not the school. She refused to comment further. Eastern Cape Education Department spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said district director Nozizwe Bashman had sent psychologists to the school shortly after hearing about the accident.
“Our psychologists have already started sessions with the family and witnesses, who will receive further trauma counselling,” he said.
“The department and the MEC is totally gutted by the accident and we have launched an investigation to establish what happened and to make sure it does not reoccur.”
Police spokesman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said the police Accident Response Unit was investigating a case of culpable homicide and would consult the director of public prosecutions on whether anyone should be prosecuted.