The Johannesburg Metro Police Department said that they condemn negligent and bad driving behaviour after learners were injured in an accident in Halfway Gardens.
The bus carrying learners crashed into a complex on 6 February, after the driver lost control of the vehicle.
JMPD spokesperson, Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar confirmed that the taxi was carrying 12 learners aged between 12 and 16 years and it was driving on the wrong side of 3rd Road.
“The driver lost control and crashed through the steel gates of a private estate and a wall of a house. The learners all sustained minor injuries and were transported to the hospital. The driver was not injured and was arrested and charged with reckless and negligent driving.”
Ethan Alford, an eyewitness who was driving on 7th Road, explained what he saw adding that he stopped at the stop street to turn right into the complex where the taxi crashed into. “As I was about to pull off something told me to look left so I looked, and this taxi was flying down 3rd Road on the wrong side of the road, so I stopped.
“The driver most probably missed me say by about 5cm, he then crashed through the gates and hit one of the houses walls. I would say by the time he passed me he was doing about 100 to 120km/h.”
He added, “I think because traffic had built up all the way to the top of the hill on 3rd Road he could have been late to drop the learners off at school
or he was trying to pick others up so he went on the wrong side of the road.”
The Midrand Learner Transport Association’s public relations officer Brian Govender also weighed in on the incident expressing his dissapointment. He said that according to his understanding, the driver was reckless. “He was wrong to drive facing oncoming traffic and he is responsible for endangering the lives of those scholars.
“The driver will be fired and banned from acquiring a driver’s job for scholars and will have no defence from the Midrand Learner Transport Association.
“The vehicle was tested by the JMPD after it was reported that the brakes had failed. They found it to be in a roadworthy condition.”
Govender concluded that parents trusted their organisation as it was a regulated one. He said that with such a serious matter at hand they will hold a massive workshop revolving around safety in scholar transport. “My heart aches for those parents that had children in that transport. I am a parent as well so I understand the pain. This was the first incident with that transport and will be the last.”
Details: Midrand Learner Transport Association 074 875 8624.
ALSO READ: Three suspects arrested after using a fake JMPD patrol car
