The coal truck driver who smashed head-on into a vehicle carrying 20 people, 18 of them young schoolchildren, has been found guilty of their murders.
KwaZulu-Natal acting judge Garth Davis rejected Sibusiso Siyaya’s version that his brakes had failed and he had lost control of the 55-ton vehicle in September 2022 on his way to Richards Bay to deliver coal.
Instead, Davis said, evidence, including dashcam footage, proved that Siyaya, 28, of Jozini had careered at high speed on the wrong side of the road down the Itshelejuba Pass for 1.2km, forcing other vehicles to swerve out of his way before he crashed into the Toyota LDV that was in the emergency lane.
The LDV was trapped under the truck and was pushed back about 220m until both vehicles hit a culvert and came to a rest in a drainage ditch.
The bodies of the 18 children, the driver and a teacher littered the scene.
One child survived but died in hospital.
Siyaya was seen shirtless, fleeing the scene with a woman, who was a passenger in the truck. He rendered no assistance to the injured and the dead.
Instead, Davis, in his judgment — handed down in the high court sitting in Pongola on Tuesday — said Siyaya had gone to the local police station the next day, pretending to be a representative of the trucking company seeking documentation that was in the cab.
A colleague who accompanied him ratted on him, and he was only then arrested.
The children killed were all between the ages of five and 14. One mother lost three of her children in the crash. The 19-year-old LDV driver was Lekhukuthula Nkonyana, and the assistant teacher was Zinhle Mkhize.
Siyaya was employed as a heavy-duty driver by BaoBao Projects and, according to evidence during the trial, was paid an incentive for completing loads.
It was common cause that Siyaya had experienced a problem with his brakes during the trip, but expert evidence revealed that while the brakes were not up to scratch, they had not caused Siyaya to lose control of the truck.
For 1.2km there was no visible attempt by him to move back into the correct lane. Instead he drove at excessive speed — at one point 105km/h — until he collided with the LDV. At that point he was travelling at 91km/h.
And while Siyaya had placed tape over the internal camera in the truck, GPS tracking and dashcam evidence enabled state advocate Krishan Shah to lead detailed evidence of the speed of Siyaya’s journey and the control he had over the truck.
This evidence also contradicted Siyaya’s version that he had not pulled over at the mandatory stop for heavy vehicles before his approach to the Itshelejuba Pass in Pongola because he could not control the truck.
The records, Davis said, showed that Siyaya had a “steady hand” and was completely in control of the vehicle. It was only when he came across traffic congestion that he swung out on to the opposite lane crossing a double barrier line.
For 1.2km there was no visible attempt by him to move back into the correct lane. Instead he drove at excessive speed — at one point 105km/h — until he collided with the LDV. At that point he was travelling at 91km/h.
“During this descent numerous vehicles are seen rapidly moving or travelling in the emergency lane to avoid his truck,” Davis said.
One, a blue Polo, had to swerve at an acute angle into the emergency lane to avoid a head-on collision.
The footage showed that Nkonyana also attempted to avoid the truck by turning sharply into the emergency lane but then had nowhere else to go because of an Armco barrier.
Davis said even as the truck, now with the LDV underneath it, hit the culvert it was travelling at 45km/h.
“As it strikes the culvert there are images of three children being flung from the bin of the LDV like rag dolls.”
Experts testified that the brakes, while not operating optimally, did not fail.
Siyaya, in his evidence, maintained that he completely lost control of the truck and claimed he was constantly warning oncoming traffic of this by flicking his lights. He said he tried to pull up his handbrake to jack-knife the truck, but nothing worked and he had fled the scene because he feared for his life.
But Shah said this was a classic “hit and run”.
Davis said Siyaya was a person “perpetually in a hurry”. He worked 16 days back to back because the more coal he delivered, the more he earned.
“The manner of his driving substantiates this, he is continually at regular intervals exceeding the speed limit. His evidence and credibility receded to a very low ebb, he was argumentative and fundamentally dishonest,” he said, noting that even Siyaya’s lawyer had conceded that his evidence could not be accepted.
“The defence that his braking systems had completely failed him is rejected,” Davis said.
He said Siyaya’s travelling companion had been present in court, but Siyaya had not called her to give evidence.
Davis said the state had proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Siyaya had intended to maximise his earnings. He had removed his front number plates to avoid speed traps. There was nothing mechanically wrong with the truck, that he had made a clear volitional decision to cross the double barrier line to avoid traffic congestion and had then driven at dangerous speeds.
He never once attempted to go back into his lane. After the accident he fled the scene. He did not render assistance at the scene, and he did not report the accident to the police.
Dealing with whether Siyaya should be found guilty of murder, Davis said the harrowing evidence of the videos revealed “a level of dangerous driving that might be unparalleled” and that it was immaterial to him what consequences would flow from his actions.
His actions went beyond conscious negligence. Davis convicted Siyaya of 20 counts of murder, one of reckless driving and one of failing to perform the duties of a driver after the accident and failing to report the accident.
Siyaya is expected to be sentenced later this week.
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