{"id":305660,"date":"2025-12-03T15:37:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T13:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/bloemnewsexpress\/driver-faces-counts-of-culpable-homicide-after-tragic-death-of-three-school-children\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T16:47:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:47:48","slug":"driver-faces-counts-of-culpable-homicide-after-tragic-death-of-three-school-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/bloemnewsexpress\/driver-faces-counts-of-culpable-homicide-after-tragic-death-of-three-school-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver faces counts of culpable homicide after tragic death of three school children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BLOEMFONTIEN &#8211; The driver of the Toyota Hilux bakkie that was involved in the fatal accident in which three children of the Dr. C.F. Visser School in Bloemfontein were killed appeared in the Bloemfontein Regional Court yesterday, Tuesday, 2 December. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tristan Kearney (20) appeared on three counts of culpable homicide, one count of reckless and negligent driving, disregarding a road traffic sign, and violating regulations pertaining to the number of people he could carry in that car. He did not plead to the charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The case reached this stage following the completion of the culpable homicide investigation by the Bloemfontein police. The matter has been postponed to 21 January next year in the same court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kaydene Davids of Netwerk24 reported that the case was brought forward after Kearney&#8217;s legal representative, Adv. Allen Simpson, approached the court earlier as he was unavailable on the initial date. It was scheduled for today \u2013 3 December. According to Simpson, &#8220;there is no sinister reason for the request that the case be heard on Tuesday.&#8221; Following this, Regional Magistrate Rasheed Matthews set down Kearney&#8217;s matter for 21 January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tragic accident, involving a Toyota Hilux bakkie and a Chevrolet Spark, occurred on 24 January this year. It happened at about 07:45 at a four-way intersection on the N8 highway where there are traffic lights in Bloemfontein. Of the deceased children, two were brothers Ryan (6) and Ayden (8) Smit while the third was their niece Lean\u00e9 van Papendorp (8). Ryan and Lean\u00e9 died instantly. Ayden reportedly died later that day&nbsp;in the Busamed Hospital, Bram Fischer Private Hospital, when his heart stopped for the second time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"295100\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/bloemnewsexpress\/veiling-ten-bate-van-kersfonds-gehou\/60bdacc4-9040-431b-990e-302b2398b3bd\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/bloemnewsexpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/60bdacc4-9040-431b-990e-302b2398b3bd.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1200,1600\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"60bdacc4-9040-431b-990e-302b2398b3bd\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/bloemnewsexpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/60bdacc4-9040-431b-990e-302b2398b3bd-768x1024.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/bloemnewsexpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Tennique-Joubert-who-survived-the-fatal-accident-with-her-parents-and-grandparents-upon-being-discharged-from-the-hospital.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-295100\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Tennique Joubert is seen with her parents and grandparents after being discharged from the hospital following the bakkie accident. Photo: Teboho Setena<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The fourth child Tennique Joubert (6) and Adri Jonck, driver of the Chevrolet Spark, miraculously survived the fatal accident. Tennique had emergency surgery performed on her after she went into a coma following the accident. Adri is the mother of Lean\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kearney was reportedly travelling alone in the bakkie and was heading east along the N8. The Chevrolet Spark driver was following traffic along Kruger Avenue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Court case of driver in fatal accident where three school children died began<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":305663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_crsspst_to_novanewscoza":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozacityvision":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozadistrictmailhelderberg":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaeikestadnuus":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozahermanustimes":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozakomani-karoo":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozakougaexpress":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozamthathaexpress":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozanoordkaapbulletin":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozapaarlpost":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozapeexpress":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozapeoplespost":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaswartlandgazette":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozatygerburger":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaudexpress":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozavistanews":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozavrystaatkroon":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaweskusnuus":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaweslander":false,"_crsspst_to_novanewscozaworcesterstandard":false,"_eb_attr":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"sponsored_utm_source":"","sponsored_utm_medium":"","sponsored_utm_campaign":"","sponsored_utm_term":"","sponsored_utm_content":"","_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"author_byline":"","competition_end_date":"","featured_image_custom_caption":"","language_version_url":"","post_language":"en","video_embed_url":"","scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7912,7874,91],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"publication":[],"class_list":["post-305660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-court","tag-local-news","tag-top"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v27.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Driver Faces Counts of Culpable Homicide Charges | BloemNews Express<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A driver faces counts of culpable homicide after the tragic death of three school children in Bloemfontein. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/bloemnewsexpress\/driver-faces-counts-of-culpable-homicide-after-tragic-death-of-three-school-children\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Driver faces counts of culpable homicide after tragic death of three school children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A driver faces counts of culpable homicide after the tragic death of three school children in Bloemfontein. 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