UPDATE: Petrol bombed school bus – second attack in five days
The same bus has been attacked twice within five days according to the school.
The 22-seater special needs school mini-bus that was bombed this morning on the Dorinkop road near Stanger while on its way to picking up pupils, was also shot at on the same road on Friday, February 5.
The same mini-bus, driven by the same driver on the same road was attacked twice in five days.
The driver of the bus, Bhaiya Ramsubug and two female bus aids were lucky to escape the bus before the bomb exploded.
“The occupants of a white Toyota Corolla in the oncoming lane flung a petrol bomb into the mini-bus through an open window while both were traveling at about 60 kilometres per hour,” said Ramsubug who was still in shock and barely able to string a sentence together.
He said the petrol bomb landed right in between his feet and he quickly swerved the vehicle to the right, off the road and into an open patch of land where him and his colleagues abandoned the vehicle and ran for their lives.
“We had about ten seconds to get off the road and out of the mini-bus before it blew up.”
Ramsubug said this was the fifth time he had been attacked as a professional driver and said he was also hijacked about 10 years ago.
Parents called the school, annoyed that their children had not been picked up for school and were shocked to find out that their children’s school bus had been bombed before it reached them.
“What if the bus was full of children?” said Kishore Hira, principal of the Stanger Training College school for children with special needs.
He said young special needs children were not able to take public transport and needed specialised help when being transported.
“We are a special needs school and, together with the department of education provide a free transport service to our pupils. People should assist, rather than destroy our buses and put our pupils at a disadvantage,” said Hira.
He said there have been similar attacks on the school’s buses in 2015 but did not believe any to be taxi violence related.
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