Car crashes into classroom at Banksia Road Primary School, Greenacre
A 52-year-old woman has been charged with dangerous driving after two boys died and three children were seriously injured when a car crashed into a classroom in Greenacre today.
The Express
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A 52-year-old woman has been charged with dangerous driving after two boys died and three children were seriously injured when a car crashed into a classroom at Banksia Road Public School in Greenacre today.
Two boys, aged eight, were critically injured following the crash. They were taken to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead where they were pronounced dead. Two eight-year-old girls were transported to the same hospital in a stable condition, and one nine-year-old girl was also taken there in a serious condition.
Seventeen children and a female teacher were assessed by Ambulance NSW staff at the scene. There were 24 children in the class room at the time.
The female driver of the Toyota Kluger was uninjured. She was taken to Bankstown Hospital for mandatory blood and urine tests before returning to Bankstown police station.
She has been charged with two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death - drive manner dangerous, and negligent driving (occasioning death).
Her licence has been suspended and she has been granted conditional bail to appear at Bankstown Local Court on Wednesday, November 29.
Police from Bankstown Local Area Command and Metropolitan Crash Investigation Unit on are on scene, conducting inquiries. A crime scene has been established.
A distraught father has described lifting the 4WD off one dying boy while another screamed for his mother in the horrific moments after the car ploughed into the classroom.
The man, who lives near the school and whose daughter goes there, and two onsite tradesman ran towards the carnage when they heard a crash followed by screaming children.
“Three of us lifted it and one of the blokes grabbed him out from underneath,” the man, who did not want to be named, said.
The child was rushed to the first aid room.
“We did CPR on him until the ambos arrived,” the man said.
The boy was unconscious under the car while his badly injured classmate lay a few feet away speaking to teachers and helpers.
“He was saying ‘I want my mum’. She wouldn’t have got to see him before he died,” the man said.
“He had a big gash in his head.”
He said the 52-year-old female driver was hysterical when they got to the scene.
“The driver was in the back seat, I don’t know how she got there, and she was just screaming,” he said.
“She was screaming ‘help me, help me’.”
Other injured children lay around the two badly hurt boys.
“They were lying all over the ground and others were just running around screaming,” the man said.
A Year 3 student at Banksia Road Public School in Greenacre has described the horrifying moment the car crashed into his classroom.
Tarek, a student in 3T, the classroom that was hit by the car, said: “The car crashed into the room … I saw one of my friends faint … I started crying. It sounded like a big pop”.
Fellow student Remas Shebhavalvem, 9, who is in Year 4 was visibly upset when she came out of the school. She was told her friend in Year 3 had a broken leg.
“I heard a bang in the classroom and we thought it was nothing. But then the teachers came and screamed at us to leave everything,” she told The Express.
“All the polices (sic) were around and I was super scared and I saw that one of my friends had not come out.”
Isaac Tayba, who rushed to the school where his nephew is a Year 3 student, said it was a tragedy to see what happened.
“It was a difficult moment, we all left our jobs and rushed here,” Mr Tayba said.
“You’ve got mothers over there fainting, you’ve got paramedics dealing with all the mothers and everyone is just nervous that it’s their child.”
The car slammed into the demountable building 9.45am this morning.
All of the classrooms were evacuated one by one.
Hundreds of hysterical parents rushed to the scene as news spreads about the crash. At least one woman had told friends she needed to go to the hospital.
Police, NSW Ambulance, the Department of Education’s district director and the school’s maintenance contractor were also at the scene.
A car has crashed into a school at Greenacre, paramedics on scene treating 7 people @9NewsSyd pic.twitter.com/fACzg7MyLf
— Zara James (@Zara_James9) November 6, 2017