This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Two eight-year-old boys have died and three girls are in hospital after a car crashed into a classroom in the Sydney suburb of Greenacre.

One girl, aged nine, was in a serious condition, the other two, both aged eight, were stable, a police statement said. The female driver of the car, aged 52, was uninjured. Police said they did not believe the incident was deliberate.

On Tuesday afternoon the woman was charged with two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death, police said.

“Obviously this is a very, very tragic event,” NSW police acting assistant commissioner Stuart Smith said. Crash investigators and detectives from Bankstown local area command were investigating the circumstances that led to the accident.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police and paramedics on site after a car crashed into a Greenacre school classroom, killing two children and putting another three in hospital. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

The car, a Toyota Kluger, hit the weatherboard building at Banksia Road primary school in Greenacre about 9.45am on Tuesday.

Paramedics arrived to “a scene of carnage” with “distressed and overwhelmed children and teachers”.

It was “pandemonium” and “distressing”, NSW ambulance superintendent Stephanie Radnidge said. “They were crying, they were distressed, some were asking for their parents.”

Radnidge said the boys who died had suffered multiple traumas and were unconscious when they were taken to hospital.

There were 24 children in the classroom when the crash happened, police said. Seventeen children and a female teacher were assessed on the grounds by paramedics. Two chaplains were brought in to support paramedics and the victims.

“[Paramedics] are trained the deal with such tragedies, and to respond in an appropriate manner is so that the prehospital care is administered,” Radnidge said.

“It is very, very hard because we are parents ourselves, we are human beings. But we are highly trained and the best care was delivered this morning to those injured at this site.”

It’s believed the car was within the school grounds when the incident happened. Police said the driver was a local woman, but it was too early to say whether she had any relationship with the school.

“We’re not looking at this as an intentional act. It is a crash investigation,” Smith said.

Superintendent Adam Dewbury of NSW Fire and Rescue said teachers and members of the public had run into the classroom to help lift the vehicle after the crash. The situation was “very complex, very traumatic” for everyone involved, he said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Emergency services at Banksia Road primary school, Greenacre. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

“However, the response by the first responders was fantastic. World-class.”

Online there was an outpouring of grief from parents. “A whole community is mourning, we are all shocked, we are all in tears,” one woman wrote on Facebook.

“These sweet children woke up today, happy to go to school and be with their friends, mothers and fathers dressed them, giving them their last goodbye kiss not knowing about a tragedy that was coming their way.”

A man who lives across the road from the school broke down as police announced the boys had died.

Police established a crime scene and the driver of the car was taken to hospital for mandatory blood and urine tests.



Police said the children were taken from the classroom after the accident to a separate location where the five who were seriously injured were identified and rushed to hospital. There were a number of other minor injuries.

Lakemba’s local member Jihad Dib, who was formerly principal of nearby Punchbowl boys high school, said the “gutting feeling” was reverberating through the community.

'The kids ran out screaming': neighbours tell of Sydney school crash horror Read more

“It’s difficult to comprehend – not just the way it happened, but that two eight-year-olds lost their lives,” he said.

The NSW education minister, Rob Stokes, said the grief was beyond comprehension and the government’s first priority would be to support students and families.

“This will not be a quick process and we will work together with the school community to provide whatever assistance we can,” he said.

The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, visited the school on Tuesday to pay her respects.



The driver was granted conditional bail to appear at Bankstown local court on 29 November.