An e-hailing driver has landed in jail after he ploughed into nine children in Mitchells Plain, leaving them severely injured.
The ou was apparently trying to flee from an kwaad pa of a teen passenger he had just dropped.
He turned the corner and drove into the laaities, who were practising a dance routine on Elephant Street in Eastridge on Saturday afternoon.
The accident was caught on film which shows the kids, aged between five and 17, dancing on the pavement. Seconds later, the speeding black Toyota Etios is seen turning the corner and ramming straight into them. But, the driver does not stop and speeds away.
Traumatised mother Lucinda Langtry , 36, tells the Daily Voice: “I was inside my house while the children were outside practising for the upcoming Heritage Day event. I heard a loud bang and when I went outside I found the children’s bodies scattered all over the street... at the time I had no idea if they were still alive or not.
“The youngest child, the five-year-old, was in the worst condition. When I looked at her, I saw that she was about to stop breathing as she was struggling.
“We prayed over her. It was God’s miracle that she was breathing, even though nie so lekker nie.
“Some of the kids’ legs are broken, my daughter has a wound on the forehead and her nose is broken.”
The mom says the driver had just dropped off a teenager at her home.
“She lives around the corner from us, the girl had apparently told her father that the driver was making sexual comments about her breasts.”
She says when the dad came outside with the taxi fare he wysed the driver, “and the driver sped off , but the father jumped in the car ”. “At the time of the accident the father was inside the car, the car was only stopped more than 500 metres away from Elephant Street.”
Another mom whose child was hurt, Kashiefa Pretorious, 37, says they want speed humps on the road: “We want to make sure they are not going to be harmed again.”
Police spokesperson Andrè Traut says: “An e-hailing driver, 27, was arrested [on Saturday] at around 6:10pm in Mitchells Plain on a charge of reckless and or negligent driving following a vehicle accident where eight young children who were pedestrians were injured in Elephant Street Eastridge.
“The suspect is expected to make his court appearance in Mitchells Plain.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za