Cape Town - An incident where two school pupils fell from a bus window in Cape Town on Friday morning while in transit has been investigated by the bus company.
The incident occurred at about 7:30am and the pupils were travelling from Khayelitsha to schools in Maitland at the time when they fell out of the bus.
The two children sustained head and leg injuries.
According to the spokesperson for Golden Arrow Bus Service (GABS) Bronwen Dyke-Beyer said the children fell from the moving bus after dislodging an emergency window.
“Golden Arrow can confirm an incident that occurred this morning at approximately 07h30 on a school bus travelling from Khayelitsha to Maitland schools, in which two scholars fell out of the bus after dislodging an emergency window.
“We have reviewed the footage from the bus and can confirm the following: the bus was less than 40% full and had entire rows of empty seats.
“The window in question was clearly marked as an emergency exit window which is required by legislation to give way when force is applied. Even if a window is pushed out, it is impossible to fall out of the said window if seated, as is required by our conditions of carriage,” Dyke-Beyer said.
She said footage showed throughout the trip some scholars can be seen playing rowdily with each other while others are seated.
“Just before the incident three children make their way to the front row of seats behind the driver’s cab and climb onto the seats – the footage does not show how they fall out of the window because they are just of range but in the preceding moments, they appear to be play wrestling,” Dyke-Beyer said.
The injured pupils immediately received medical treatment.
They are currently in a stable condition and GABS is in contact with the hospital the children are being treated at.
Dyke-Beyer also rubbished claims that the bus was overcrowded at the time of the incident as alleged on social media platforms.
“We have been made aware of reports that overcrowding contributed to this incident, we would like to state for the record that that is completely false,” she said.
GABS is further pleading with parents to educate their children on the rules of carriage.
“More importantly, we would like to plead with parents to educate their children about the dangers of disobeying conditions of carriage and ignoring rules that are there for their own safety.
“Incidents of this type do not need to occur. Emergency windows are designed to give way when pressure is applied, but if these children had been seated, they could not have fallen out of the bus even if they managed to push out the window,” Dyke-Beyer added.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
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