Transport organisation to engage with metro police following fatal accident
The association confirmed the taxi was indeed roadworthy and was not overloaded.
Members of the Tembisa Education Transport Coordinators will visit the Esselen Park family of the little girl who died after a school bus crash in Birchleigh North.
The five-year-old Oxford Combined College pupil succumbed to her injuries in the Tembisa Hospital after the accident on Monday morning, when the school minibus taxi fell into a ditch at the corner of Pongolariver Drive and Strydom Street.
The blue minibus taxi was transporting 17 pupils, including the girl. The 35-year-old female driver was also injured.
Chairperson for Tembisa Education Transport Coordinators, Bhekumuzi Ngwenya, said members of their association would engage with them on how they could help. He confirmed the taxi involved was a part of their organisation.
“Members of the executive committee met on Monday afternoon to discuss when we could meet with the family. We will also visit the families of the other children who were injured.”
Addressing concerns that the minibus taxi might have been overloaded, Ngwenya confirmed that the driver had followed the correct procedures with regards to the maximum number of children to be transported at a time. The association said the taxi was also roadworthy.
“We recently renewed the licence discs on all our vehicles, which goes hand-in-hand with ensuring the state of the vehicles, including this one,” he said.
A minibus taxi takes a maximum of 14 adults and school bus taxis use a system to work out the maximum number of children transported in a taxi.
“Two children count as one adult and three children as two adults, therefore, in this particular case, the vehicle was not overloaded,” he added.
According to the chairperson, the organisation was seriously concerned about the increase in school bus accidents and had already started talks with the EMPD to see how best they could deal with the accidents.
“We have already had one meeting with the metro police, which we held during the school holidays. We will have a follow up meeting on July 27.”
Unfortunately, some of the battles the association is faced with is that not all pupil transporters are members of the Tembisa Education Transport Coordinators, making it difficult to be accountable for some of the accidents that have occurred.
“We urge all school bus operators and drivers to join our organisation so we are able to take responsibility for their actions.”
Ngwenya said they also hosted a three-day workshop in June, where drivers were educated on how to successfully run a pupil transportation system and how drivers should appropriately conduct themselves when transporting pupils.
“The problem is that some of the school drivers come from a background of taxi driving, so some of the conduct they bring with them is not necessarily in line with how we’d like our drivers to behave on the road,” he explained.
”For example, smoking and loud music is strictly prohibited when transporting our children.
”These are school pupils and the journey to school should not be disruptive and noisy. It should rather be a peaceful environment where pupils can be well prepared to start their day in the classroom.
“When parents entrust us with their children, we temporarily become custodians of those children when on the road with them, so we have to make sure the children are safe at all times.
”And, through engaging with the metro police, we hope we can find a way to curb all these accidents.”
