18 pupils injured in school-run collision
Driver dies in crash just months after new bakkie safety regulations
EIGHTEEN schoolchildren were injured and a scholar transport driver killed when two vehicles – both of them taking children to school – collided in North End in Port Elizabeth yesterday.
Witnesses who assisted in pulling the children from the wreckage said panic and chaos erupted seconds after a Hyundai H100 light commercial vehicle and a Toyota Hilux bakkie collided.
According to police, CCTV cameras on a nearby building at the intersection of Harrower and Lancaster roads, where the collision occurred, captured parts of the crash shortly before 8am.
Busy Harrower Road was blocked off for about two hours by traffic and police officials as emergency services personnel attended to the wreckage.
The crash comes only two months after new road regulations were implemented making it illegal for schoolchildren to be transported in the “goods compartment” of any vehicle – bakkie or other – in exchange for money.
Municipal traffic law enforcement officials yesterday confirmed that they had already met with more than 1 000 bakkie owners who transport children in a bid to address the issue.
Nelson Mandela Bay EMS operations manager Ashwell Botha said a child who had been trapped under the bakkie and a woman in one of the vehicles were the most seriously injured.
“Fourteen children sustained minor injuries and were suffering from shock while another three children and three adults sustained moderate injuries,” he said.
Botha confirmed that the suspected driver of the Hilux bakkie had died on the scene.
Terence Barnard, 33, who works in a nearby building, said he ran outside after hearing the crash.
“There was a loud bang. I ran outside and saw the bakkie on its side and the other vehicle [Hyundai] standing in the middle of the road about 30m away.
“A group of people ran to help those trapped. I ran to the bakkie. Several children were screaming inside but most of them managed to crawl out of the back of the bakkie to safety.”
He said the children were taken to the pavement where they sat waiting for ambulances.
“While looking into the bakkie [which was on its side] I saw one child pinned underneath it.
“I estimate that he must have been about eight. He was trapped and having seizures. A group of us managed to lift the bakkie off the child and pushed it to the side.”
Barnard said that within minutes the medics arrived and began treatment. “The child was in bad shape . . . He was totally unresponsive to anything happening.”
He said some people were trapped in the front of the bakkie but fire department staff managed to get them out.
Another witness to the accident, who declined to be named, said the bakkie had been turning out of Lancaster Street.
“The bakkie should have stopped at the stop street. The other vehicle [Hyundai] was travelling fast down Harrower Road towards town when the bakkie tried to cross over at the stop street.
“Obviously, he did not make it and the [Hyundai] collided into the side of the bakkie, which is when it rolled,” he said.
Spokesman Warrant Officer Al-
win Labans said police estimated that eight children were in the back of the Hyundai and another 10 in the bakkie.
“We have evidence that shows several children were flung out of the Hyundai when the impact occurred.”
Asked about overloading, Labans said it would form part of the investigation.
“At this stage, we are still trying to ascertain which children were in what vehicle,” he said.
At Livingstone Hospital, shocked Port Elizabeth mother Ntombentsha Gola-Kwini said she had received a phone call about her Grade 3 daughter, Ezimnandi, being in an accident.
She said Ezimnandi – who was en route to Abraham Levy Primary School in Schauderville – sustained minor injuries.
“I was traumatised, shocked when I heard about the accident,” Gola-Kwini said. “I immediately took private transport from work to the hospital.
“I have been told one child is in the intensive care unit. I am just grateful my daughter is not seriously injured.”
Ezimnandi, who sustained a minor cut and bruises, lost a shoe after being trapped in the bakkie when it rolled.
Her uncle, Lunga Kwini, said the bakkie had been transporting pupils for three years and was in a good condition.
Other children involved in the crash were from Frank Joubert Primary School and De Vos Malan Primary School, also in Schauderville.
Health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said 10 children were sent to the Korsten Clinic for treatment as they had no visible injuries, while others were treated and discharged.
By late afternoon, one child remained in a serious condition, he said.
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said steps were under way to stop bakkies being used to transport pupils.
Although the champions of curbing scholar transport through bakkies were the provincial government, the municipality had already held meetings with representatives of 1 200 bakkie owners to come up with a solution, he said.
“A meeting is still pending between the municipality and the provincial Department of Transport so that the grey areas in the implementation of the road traffic rules governing scholar transport through bakkies can be clarified to fasttrack implementation by the municipality’s traffic department,” he said.
In the meantime, the municipality would make sure “there is law and order on our roads, through the traffic and metro police officers on the ground”.