"He forced himself downwards in an effort to get out of the car, off the ride and was successful. He then lost his balance..."
|||Durban - Royal Agricultural Society chief executive Terry Strachan wants to change rules for admission of children at the Royal Show funfair after the death of five-year-old Simphiwe Mbense this week.
“In many instances, children are accompanied by an inadequate number of teachers. In the case of the tragedy in question I understand that only two teachers were accompanying 45 children,” Strachan said on Friday.
“My office is of the view that this is grossly insufficient and in future a policy will be implemented whereby no school groups entering the grounds where the children are nine years or younger, will be permitted access, unless there is a minimum ratio of six children for every teacher.”
Simphiwe, a pupil at KwaNoshezi Primary School in Sinathing, in the provincial capital, reportedly stood up in his car on the Music Box ride and was struck by another “teacup” car.
His father, Sibusiso, has questioned why his child should have been allowed on the ride and whether he was properly strapped in.
“Yes, maybe he should not have stood up, but why did the teachers and the operator allow him on that ride? That was too dangerous for someone as small as he was,” he said.
Strachan said access to the ride depended on a person’s height and that Simphiwe had just qualified.
He said a team of investigators, including engineers, who inspected the equipment on Friday, came to a preliminary finding that it would have been impossible for anyone to have fallen out of the car, unless they had acted on their own volition.
“Somebody one metre or higher would have to make a conscious effort to extricate themselves.”
He said all indications pointed to the youngster having done that, probably induced by extreme fear or for fear of falling ill.
“He forced himself downwards in an effort to get out of the car, off the ride and was successful in doing so. He then lost his balance and fell and was struck by a unit behind, which was tragic and fatal.”
Strachan stressed that these were preliminary findings into the “awful tragedy” and would be subject to further tests and confirmation.
“There could be errors en route.”
However, a post on Facebook by Juanita Allison painted a different picture of the “teacup” ride.
“We were at that fun fair on Sunday and in some cases the bars meant to keep the kids down did not lock and there were no other seat belts in place.
“I took my little one on the teacup and it was the most horrific experience of my life! Halfway through the ride our ‘teacup’ started spinning out of control. With the bar that wasn’t, or couldn’t lock bouncing up and down madly, and trying desperately to hold on to my daughter to prevent her from flying off the ride.”
Patrons have also lambasted show management for continuing with the show despite the accident.
Independent on Saturday