Durban - Two women and a teenager walking home from school were knocked down and killed on Chatsworth’s Higginson Highway on Thursday.
Ganas Moodley said he heard a car screeching and then a bang. He rushed to the roadside where he saw three bodies on the road.
He was shocked when a passer-by told him the victims were members of his family and a neighbour.
His wife, Rita, 58, granddaughter, Nikita Ronette Doorsamy, 13, and his neighbour, Janaki Naidoo, 71, died when a motorist apparently lost control of his car.
The vehicle, with two occupants, had been travelling to Chatsworth. The car veered off the road and crashed down an embankment.
The victims were on their way home in Welbedact from Crossmoor Secondary School.
Their neighbour, Prabisine Govender, said Naidoo and Moodley would fetch Nikita and her sisters, Britney, 10, and, Nicole, 12, from school daily.
She said the road was a death trap and they had to help the children cross over the busy highway.
“Her (Nikita’s) sisters finished early because of a school meeting, so Ganas had fetched them from school,” Govender said, adding she was not sure how the accident happened.
“It was a gruesome sight.”
She said the two women would normally stand on either side of the children and hold hands to cross the highway.
“The three were very close and I think they shared their last moments holding hands.”
Nikita’s devastated mother, Pinky Doorsamy, a clothing supervisor at a local factory, said her daughter, who was in Grade 8, had excelled in school, especially art.
She and her husband, Ronnie, were too distraught to answer further questions.
The funerals are expected to take place on Sunday.
Police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, said a motorist allegedly lost control and knocked three pedestrians. The cause of the accident was not yet known, he said.
Chatsworth police are investigating three counts of culpable homicide.
Netcare 911 spokesman, Chris Botha, said the victims had died on impact.
He said the two occupants in the vehicle were slightly injured and taken to RK Khan Hospital.
Daily News