School children killed in SA road accident
At least 14 people, nine of them schoolchildren, were killed in a six-vehicle accident on a major road in South Africa, the South African Press Association reported.
Police Captain Stephen Marais said a group of schoolchildren returning to Elliotdale, near the east coast town of East London, in two minibus taxis were involved in the accident on the N2 highway shortly after 7pm yesterday (5pm Irish Time).
“Bodies are scattered all over the road,” SAPA quoted him as saying.
One of the minibus taxis was involved in a head-on collision with a truck, said Eastern Cape traffic department spokesman Tshepo Machaea, according to SAPA.
The other minibus, which had been travelling behind the first, and three more cars were then involved.
At least three people were seriously injured, Machaea said.
The cause of the accident was not yet known and the highway was closed in both directions.
South Africa has a very poor road safety record, not least because of its reliance on minibus taxis – which are often overcrowded and in poor condition - as the backbone of its public transport system.
According to statistics released last month by the Automobile Association of South Africa, 42 people are killed and about 500 injured on the country’s notorious roads every day.
