The driver responsible for crashing into a young Toti school girl on her scooter in 2014 was found guilty of negligence and sentenced to R2,000 or six months’ imprisonment, suspended for five years in Toti Magistrate’s Court.
The accident occured at the intersection of Umdoni Road and Blaze Way. The girl, who was 16-years-old at the time, was in a critical condition after Sipho Reginald Chiliza’s vehicle collided into the side of her scooter on Monday afternoon, 4 August 2014.
Paramedics found the scholar lying on the roadway with life-threatening injuries and she had to be placed on a ventilator.
Photographs from the scene showed the driver’s vision had been obscured by overgrown brush at the roadside.
The 38-year-old driver was charged with reckless driving, but in February the court took cognisance of his impaired line of sight, and convicted him of negligence.
This opens the door for a civil claim.
