Teen killed by frozen chicken trolley in Eastern Cape

A teenage boy was killed at Amalinda KFC in East London in the Eastern Cape on Monday‚ squashed by a falling trolley loaded with frozen chicken after it broke loose from an internal tail lift of a refrigerator truck.

Truck driver Fumanekile Gxasheka‚ 51‚ said he was up in the truck and pushing the trolley to the tail lift when its safety brakes broke sending the trolley groundwards.

Gxasheka said he and his assistant Bongani Vokwana‚ 56‚ who was operating the machine‚ were approached by the “street kid”‚ 13‚ for a job but told him to go away. “We told him nicely we didn’t have money or job for him and that he should just leave us alone and continued with our work‚ but he decided to stick around and watched us working.”

The truck had come from the Coega IDZ in Port Elizabeth to deliver frozen chicken and ingredients including flour and spices to three East London KFC outlets.

The incident took place at 11am in full view of customers since the outlet’s off-loading zone is in the public parking lot. Horrified customers ran to rescue the boy‚ who was trapped under the loaded metal cage.

Eyewitness Nonzukiso Matshayana‚ 47‚ of Saxilby Street‚ said the trolley with its load of boxes of frozen chicken “looked as if it weighed the same as if it was carrying a load of rocks”.