By Allister Arendse and Jo-Anne Smetherham
A family outing turned to tragedy in Tokai forest in Cape Town on Sunday afternoon when a rotten gum tree crashed onto a group of children, killing a six-year-old girl and critically injuring her cousin.
Melissa Cronje from Sunnyside, Athlone, died after her skull was crushed by the falling tree about 5.20 pm. Her cousin Courtney Jeffries from Ottery, also six years old, was critically injured.
A third child, who was trapped by falling branches, escaped unharmed.
Several families had met at the popular picnic spot in the Tokai plantation, which is surrounded by pine and gum trees.
Said Melissa's aunt Hillary Goliath, as she fought back tears: "We were standing close by, and heard a noise. I ran first, knowing the children were playing there. I saw Melissa's skull was crushed, and I just turned around and said: 'Melissa is already dead.'
Hillary's daughter Megan Goliath, 10, was caught under the tree as it fell, but was not trapped.
Megan's father Graham Goliath, said as the tree collapsed he heard a sound "like somebody shooting firecrackers or a firearm".
"Megan avoided the direct fall of the tree by running sideways," he said.
A crying and shaking Megan was unable to speak.
Courtney was rushed to Constantiaberg Mediclinic.
Speaking from the hospital on Sunday night Garth Counsell from St Saviour's Anglican church in Claremont, the priest of the Goliath and Jeffries families, said Courtney had been semi-stabilised and would be moved to the Red Cross Children's Hospital later that night.
Colin Wilson, plantation foreman, said the tree was old and "rotten on the inside, although you can't see that from the outside".
Although no wind had been blowing before the tree fell it was not uncommon for branches of a rotting tree, or even the entire tree, to fall down, he said.
Investigating officer Moeghammed Dolly said an autopsy would be conducted to establish the cause of Melissa's death, and an inquest would be opened.
- Melissa's father, Charles Cronje, was killed in September last year when he was knocked down by a tow-truck on Klipfontein Road. The Goliath and Cronje families have been closely-knit ever since, said Hillary Goliath.