Failed brakes apparently caused the school bus accident that claimed the lives of three pupils and the driver in Cape Town on Thursday, education authorities said.
About 40 pupils were injured when the bus overturned in Kloofnek road in Cape Town, the provincial education department said in a statement.
”According to initial reports, the brakes of the bus apparently failed.”
The accident happened around 1pm on the corner of Quarry Hill and Kloofnek Road and involved pupils from the Dennegeur Avenue Primary School in Strandfontein.
School principal Shaheed Gaidien said: ”I am devastated… This is a principal’s worst nightmare.”
He said he learnt of the accident from a teacher travelling in the second of three buses returning from an outing to the Table Mountain cableway.
He said 50 pupils and eight parents were in the bus which had overturned.
Gaidien said he was on his way to the morgue and various hospitals to ascertain what the situation was.
Education MEC Cameron Dugmore expressed his condolences to the families concerned saying: ”It is tragic to lose young lives.”
Earlier, deputy city traffic chief Heathcliff Thomas said the three pupils and the bus driver died when the single-decker vehicle overturned after it apparently clipped the sidewalk while driving down the steep Kloofnek Road.
Part of Kloofnek road near Quarry Hill remained closed by late on Thursday as the accident scene was secured.
Metro emergency doctor Cleeve Robertson said the jaws of life were used to extricate some of the pupils, and a helicopter evacuated some of them to hospital.
The injured had been admitted to two Cape Town hospitals. One pupil at the Christiaan Barnard Memorial hospital was still in a serious, but stable condition, while all seven pupils who were admitted to Vincent Pallotti hospital were discharged on Thursday night.
”[We] are tracing the names of the learners taken to each hospital.”
The education department said counsellors had been provided to give support to pupils involved in the accident, their parents and teachers.
”They will continue to provide counselling and support at the school tomorrow [Friday].” – Sapa