KZN govt to address bakkie deaths

290115: Seven children died when the bakkie taking them home from school crashed into this house in Imbali Township in Pietermaritzburg yesterday afternoon. Altogether 24 children were in the vehicle, which had a canopy on the back.

290115: Seven children died when the bakkie taking them home from school crashed into this house in Imbali Township in Pietermaritzburg yesterday afternoon. Altogether 24 children were in the vehicle, which had a canopy on the back.

Published Feb 4, 2015

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Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal departments of education and transport have until next Wednesday to come up with a “policy proposal” on the use of bakkies to carry schoolchildren following the accident in Pietermaritzburg a week ago that claimed seven lives.

Pupil transport, among other issues, was discussed at the provincial cabinet’s first sitting of the year and relayed to the media on Tuesday by the premier’s spokesman, Thami Ngwenya.

The children who died were among 23 packed on the bakkie which crashed into a house in Imbali township.

They were being taken home from Fezokuhle Primary School.

Ngwenya said the executive council noted the extent of the problem of bakkies being used as public transport and appreciated the complexity of the matter, particularly in rural areas where the public still relied on bakkies.

It resolved that the shift from bakkies to a safer mode of transport be implemented urgently.

In effecting these changes – to ensure the safety of bakkie users and schoolchildren, in particular – the departments had to include in the policy proposals and action plans the possibility of special licences for vehicles carrying children to school.

SAFETY REQUIREMENTS

Department of Transport spokesman Nathi Sukazi said the national Road Traffic Act was clear that bakkies could not be used to transport people to make a profit.

While it left room for private use, he said bakkies had to meet certain safety requirements to transport people. Sukazi emphasised that in no circumstances did the department subsidise bakkies - only roadworthy buses and minibuses were subsidised.

He said R168 million had been allocated for pupil transport that benefited more than 22 000 pupils, but there was a national call for more money.

Also, 9 000 bicycles had been given to pupils in need and, in the next three years, 10 000 more would be given.

There would be more law enforcement to curb the problem. Parents also needed to get involved and not allow their children to be carried in the back of bakkies.

Another department spokesman, Kwanele Ncalane, said a task team had compiled an audit of schools where children were carried in the back of bakkies.

They, too, would come up with recommendations.

He said the best option would be to introduce a reliable and safe mode of transport.

DEADLY CRASHES

Private emergency medical care provider ER24’s spokesman, Chitra Bodasing, said 20 people had died and more than 50 had been injured in bakkie collisions around the country over the past six weeks, in the incidents it had attended.

“ER24 urges the public to consider the implications of transporting people on the back of bakkies or any other open vehicles, for that matter.

“Standing or sitting on the back of bakkies or open trucks as well as overloading the vehicle can result in serious injuries and death, regardless of what speed you are travelling.

“People should also be aware that sitting on the back of a bakkie with a canopy does not guarantee safety.

“ We have attended to people who were injured when the canopy of the bakkie they were in detached,” said Bodasing.

The owner of the house the bakkie crashed into in Pietermaritzburg last week is still awaiting feedback from his insurer about what action will be taken on his house.

Sibusiso Ngubeni, who works for the provincial public service training academy in the premier’s office, said on Tuesday the structure was covered by insurance, but the contents were not.

His insurance company was getting advice from engineers on whether the entire house or part of it would have to be rebuilt.

‘We should know by the end of the week,’ he said.

He and his wife were living in an incomplete building they had been putting up behind his house. Their three children were with his sister.

The Mercury

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