55 kids crammed in taxi

A taxi driver was arrested near Klipgat in the North West on September 13, 2011, for loading 55 learners into a 15-seater taxi, the province's department of public safety said.

Spokesman Lesiba Kgwele said the 53-year-old driver was taking the learners home from school when he was stopped by traffic officials.

The driver was fined R2500 (around Rs 9900) and taken to the Klipgat police station while the learners, aged between seven and 10, Kgwele said, were taken home by the police.

Kgwele added that 35 taxis, nine buses and three freight vehicles had been impounded in recent public transport operations in the province.

On August 24, 14 school children, plus their bus driver, died when the bus they were travelling in, plunged into a river near Knysna, Western Cape. The bus, which was certified to carry 33 passengers, had 56 people on board. 

That accident was followed by two separate bus accidents in Gauteng and the Eastern Cape in which 15 people died.