According to a paramedic of ER24, Mr Leander Venter, a two-year-old boy sustained a serious head injury on Monday afternoon when a bakkie drove over his head in Blybank. The child was playing without adult supervision under the bakkie, which was parked in his family’s yard.
The driver, a neighbour of the boy’s family, did not see the boy and started the vehicle. He only realized that something was wrong when he started driving and felt that his vehicle was moving over something.
The horrified driver and family immediately called emergency services, who organized for the injured boy to be airlifted to a hospital where he could get specialized assistance.
In another incidents, ER24 paramedics were at Carletonville Hospital the same afternoon just before 16:00 when first the driver of a minibus taxi and then the family of a six-year-old girl that had been hit by the taxi stormed in. The family had brought the girl, who had been hit in Carletonville, with them.
Venter noted that the National Road Accident Fund paid for certain patients, such as children under seven years old and passengers, to be airlifted by helicopters belonging to private emergency services should they be seriously injured in accidents.
He also warned that parents or other family members must make sure that small children are never left alone near vehicles, roads or other dangerous areas such as swimming pools.
