Dad's roadside vigil 'traumatic'

2008-07-01 08:02

Jana Engelbrecht

Kimberley - A father sat next to the road for hours on Sunday night holding his four-year-old daughter's body because the mortuary apparently refused to fetch the body.

Mickayla van Wyk died after the BMW in which she had been travelling with her family hit some cattle on the road between Kimberley and Boshof at about 19:30 on Sunday.

Merwin and Sandra van Wyk, their three daughters, Mickayla, Sherry-Leigh, 9, and Sharelle,15, as well as Merwin's sister, Charlotte Jampies, her husband, Kenneth, and another family member, Kim Williamson, were on their way back to Kimberley after a weekend in Bloemfontein.

Mickayla was sitting on her mother's lap.

Merwin said: "The road was very dark. My sister was driving. The cattle just appeared in the road and we hit them.

Paramedics declared her dead

"I immediately saw there was something wrong with Mickayla - her neck was broken. There was blood coming out of her ears and nose," he told Volksblad on Monday.

"I lifted her out of the car and put her on the ground. She was already dead. Her mother came to sit with her and I tried to help the other people in the car."

Merwin said the ER24 ambulance services from Kimberley arrived very quickly.

An ER24 paramedic, Gerrit Slazus, performed an ECG-test on Mickayla. He said: "We checked whether we could save her but she was already dead."

The ER24 ambulance services took Sandra, Sherry-Leigh, Sharelle, Charlotte, Kenneth and Kim to Kimberley Hospital.

Merwin stayed with Mickayla and waited for the hearse.

"The mortuary in Kimberley did not want to come and fetch her, because it apparently was outside their area.

"I had to wait for the hearse from Welkom. It only came after 01:00."

Merwin said it was a traumatic experience that he would not wish on his worst enemy.

"It was terrible, I don't know what I'm going to do. She is still in the mortuary in Welkom, but I must go to fetch her."

Sergeant Thandi Mbambo of the Free State police confirmed the accident.

Out of their jurisdiction

"The accident happened 18km from Boshof, on the way to Kimberley. We're investigating a charge of culpable homicide. The car hit six cattle," she said.

Northern Cape Department of Health spokesperson Lulu Ntsie said two people had been treated in Kimberley Hospital.

"Mortuary personnel receive an order from the police when there's a fatal accident in their area of jurisdiction.

"The accident occurred in the Free State which is beyond the Northern Cape police's area of jurisdiction," said Ntsie.

- Volksblad