UPDATE: Mother still in coma after fatal Atlas Road accident
On Tuesday the children’s seriously injured mother still did not know only her baby girl had survived
A 28-year-old Birchleigh mother, who lost two of her three children in an accident on Atlas Road late Saturday night, was still in an induced coma on Tuesday morning.
Monica van Loggerenberg’s eight-month-old baby girl, Abigail van Niekerk, miraculously escaped serious harm when she was thrown from the vehicle, still strapped in her car seat.
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• Mother does not know her two young children died in Atlas Road accident
Paramedics found the little girl in bushes on the accident scene close to Bass Road in Bonaero Park.
Monica’s fiance and Abigail’s father, Juan van Niekerk, and the driver of the other vehicle involved in the accident, were not injured.
Jean-Pierre (8) and Mackayla van Loggerenberg (3) were declared dead on the scene of the accident.
Juan said the family was on their way home from Secunda when another car hit them from behind. He lost control of his vehicle and it overturned.
“We were only 12km away from home,” he said.
According to Juan, Monica was still in intensive care at Sunshine Hospital in Benoni on Tuesday morning. He was not sure how long doctors would keep her in the induced coma. She sustained head and internal injuries.
Baby Abigail, although not seriously injured, was also still in hospital where doctors were treating her for hypothermia and a slight cold.
“Although Mackayla and Jean-Pierre were not my biological children, they were like my own. It is difficult times but I get my strength from somewhere,” Juan said.
On Tuesday Monica still did not know that two of her children had died. Juan said he was going ahead with funeral arrangements.
“I know that is what Monica would have liked me to do.”
Ineke van Huyssteen, spokesman for ER24, said paramedics arrived at the scene at 11.30pm.
“Another medical service assessed the two children but despite their best efforts, the children were declared dead on the scene.
“A vehicle was lying on its side. A woman was found a few meters away from the vehicle. She was assessed and was found to be in a serious condition. A man was walking around on the scene with minor injuries,” Van Huyssteen said.
Another vehicle was found in a ditch. The driver sustained no injuries.
