VIDEO: 18 pupils injured in school-run collision
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.
Warning: Some readers may find this video upsetting.
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.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.
[caption id="attachment_213979" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Rescue services personnel on the scene of the accident in which one person died and several were injured
Picture: Werner Hills[/caption]
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.