''I still hear the screams of my classmates''

On August 25, 2005, and August 25, 2010, several families' lives changed forever following two tragic accidents in Cape Town.

Monday marked the 15th anniversary of the tragic Blackheath train tragedy, which claimed the lives of 10 school children in 2010.

School transport driver, Jacob Humphreys, illegally overtook several cars and drove through a closed boom at Buttskop Level Crossing in Blackheath.

Humphreys was convicted of 10 counts of murder and four of attempted murder.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011.

Later, the Supreme Court of Appeal reduced his sentence to eight years and the charges were changed to culpable homicide and he was granted parole in 2018.

Liesl Augis, 11, Jody Phillips, 13, Reece Smith, 7, Nolan February, 13, Michaelin de Koker, 11, Jason Pedro, 14, Nadine Marthinissen, 16, Jean-Pierre Willeman, 13, Cody Erasmus, 15, and Jade Adams, 10, died in the crash.

Fifteen years after the tragedy, Jody Phillips's mother, Valerie Phillips, still keeps his lunch in the freezer that she packed for him on the fatal day, frozen in time.

“His lunch -  Henties juice and his Tex chocolate,” she told the Cape Argus.

“Every year this time and with his birthday, I feel sick to my stomach.”

The day also marked the 20th anniversary of the tragic death of three learners from Dennegeur Avenue Primary School.

Brent Stander, 13, Shavonne Beck, 12 and Angelique Johnson, 12, were killed in the Kloof Nek Bus accident in 2005.

Andre Lemmetjies, the driver was also killed.

Parent, Yulanda Anne Gombard, was left paralysed and 25 other children were injured.

Following a court battle, the court found that the bus under the company, Leandre Transport, was not roadworthy and that the brakes failed on their return from an excursion of Grade 7 learners to Table Mountain.

Former learners and parents who were on the bus that day, took to social media yesterday, remembering the tragedy.

One former learner wrote: "I was in the second bus. I still hear the screams of my classmates. Some pupils from our bus climbed out of the windows to run to the other bus where so many of our friends were laying in blood, under the bus and outside...20 years later and I still remember everything."

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Cape Argus