SCHOOLCHILDREN were flung from an overloaded vehicle in Buffalo City yesterday when the driver veered across a lane and collided head-on with a bakkie.
The accident, captured on a homeowner’s security camera overlooking the road, happened in Beaconhurst Drive just before 3pm.
Twenty people, including 15 schoolchildren – some as young as seven – were injured in the crash. Two are in critical condition.
The pupils were travelling in a Red Toyota Condor, heading towards Beacon Bay.
According to the law, the Condor is certified to carry eight people including the driver. The footage appears to show the vehicle swerving into the path of a white bakkie.
The pupils had just been picked up from different primary schools in the city including AW Barnes, Parkside Primary, East London Primary and King’s College.
The children were going home to Mzamomhle township in Gonubie.
“I was shocked and out of that shock I lost control of the vehicle and tried to swerve from it, hitting the opposite vehicle but I failed eventually.”
When the Daily Dispatch arrived at the scene, paramedics were treating the injured, who were then rushed to Frere Hospital.
Noel Tiemie, one of the injured men in the bakkie, said he was still shaken and angry.
“Our driver tried to swerve from the oncoming car and had to drive onto the pavement but that car followed us.
There were children everywhere crying and I don’t even know how some of them landed on the pavement.
As a parent I was more concerned about them and not even about me,” Tiemie said.
Both vehicle drivers face charges of reckless and negligent driving, while Ndlumbini faces an additional charge of over loading.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mtati Tana said the men were taken in for questioning at the Beacon Bay police station.
“None of them have been arrested at this stage,” he said.
VIDEO: School kids hurt in head-on collision
The accident, captured on a homeowner’s security camera overlooking the road, happened in Beaconhurst Drive just before 3pm.
Twenty people, including 15 schoolchildren – some as young as seven – were injured in the crash. Two are in critical condition.
The pupils were travelling in a Red Toyota Condor, heading towards Beacon Bay.
According to the law, the Condor is certified to carry eight people including the driver. The footage appears to show the vehicle swerving into the path of a white bakkie.
The pupils had just been picked up from different primary schools in the city including AW Barnes, Parkside Primary, East London Primary and King’s College.
The children were going home to Mzamomhle township in Gonubie.
“I was shocked and out of that shock I lost control of the vehicle and tried to swerve from it, hitting the opposite vehicle but I failed eventually.”
When the Daily Dispatch arrived at the scene, paramedics were treating the injured, who were then rushed to Frere Hospital.
Noel Tiemie, one of the injured men in the bakkie, said he was still shaken and angry.
“Our driver tried to swerve from the oncoming car and had to drive onto the pavement but that car followed us.
There were children everywhere crying and I don’t even know how some of them landed on the pavement.
As a parent I was more concerned about them and not even about me,” Tiemie said.
Both vehicle drivers face charges of reckless and negligent driving, while Ndlumbini faces an additional charge of over loading.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mtati Tana said the men were taken in for questioning at the Beacon Bay police station.
“None of them have been arrested at this stage,” he said.
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