Driver Arrested After 5 Pupils Die In Accident
Five children, aged seven to 11, perished in a collision on AZ Berman Drive in Mitchells Plain on Tuesday morning, leading to the accusation of culpable murder against a 55-year-old Cape Town man.
The group was en route to different schools in the suburb in a white bakkie.
The driver will show up in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court once charged, according to Western Cape police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg.
Two kids, ages six and fifteen, were sent to the hospital for treatment, he added.
According to Twigg, an investigation is currently ongoing into the incident’s circumstances.
“Mitchells Plain police registered a culpable homicide case for investigation following a fatal crash which claimed the lives of five children on AZ Berman Drive.
“Police, traffic, fire and rescue services, metro police and ambulances are currently on scene.”
He said the pupils who died were between seven and 13 years old.
ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring said one of the surviving children was in critical condition.
“The bakkie they travelled in rolled multiple times. ER24 paramedics arrived on the scene [and] on closer inspection, medics found a bakkie upright in the middle of the road. Several children … were seen scattered some distance away from the bakkie,” Meiring added.
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According to News24, medics assessed the children and found five had already succumbed to their injuries while a sixth was in critical condition.
“Paramedics treated the critical patient and provided him with numerous advanced life support interventions before he was transported to a nearby hospital for urgent care,” said Meiring.
A Mitchells Plain resident told News24 “drivers always speed down the deadly road”.
“For what are they rushing? A schoolchild is killed almost every week because of this school transport.
“How many more children must die before drivers stop driving like they own this road,” said the resident, who declined to be named.
Another resident added she became emotional when she saw the children’s bodies lying under a minibus taxi and bus.
She said:
Eyewitness Jeremy Adonis said he was on his way to the Promenade Mall, which is across from where the accident took place, when he came across the accident scene.
“I pulled my car over because I couldn’t believe so many kids were dead. That bakkie must have been coming at such speed. Cameras must be put on this road. It’s a very, very dangerous stretch of road,” Adonis added.
‘Something out of a horror movie’
Western Cape Education Department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said officials were currently at the scene.
She added the department had not contracted the bakkie transporting the schoolchildren.
Education MEC David Maynier said he had been informed the pupils were “travelling on the back of a bakkie, which reportedly collided with a traffic robot”.
“The learners are from several schools in the area. The department’s counselling support teams are being dispatched to the affected schools.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends and the school communities. This is an unimaginable tragedy,” he added.
Videos of the crash immediately circulated on social media showing scores of people descending on the scene while bodies of the schoolchildren lay motionless, scattered across the road.
Mitchells Plain Community Policing Forum chairperson Norman Jantjies said the scene looked like “something out of a horror movie”.
Mobility MEC Ricardo MacKenzie sent his condolences to the families of the children killed in the crash.
“How many more schoolchildren must we lose on our roads before the transportation of children is taken seriously by transportation operators?
“Anyone who is transporting passengers, especially children, has a weighted responsibility to keep them safe.
“All vehicles must be roadworthy and have a permit. Drivers must adhere to the rules of the road,” said MacKenzie.
He urged drivers to adhere to the rules of the road when transporting schoolchildren.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis also conveyed his condolences to affected families.
“Our city mourns together with the families of scholars who died in the fatal crash.
“This is a terrible, dark day in our city. While it can never restore the lives so tragically taken, we trust that authorities will establish the full facts surrounding this incident so that there may be accountability for any wrongdoing,” said Hill-Lewis.
