On 4 July 2017 a serious road accident occurred near Machadodorp, South Africa, involving two buses and a truck. The buses were transporting employees and contractors from Keller company Franki Africa to work at the Nkomati Mine.
Tragically, 18 employees were killed and a further 12 injured, with three of the injured still in a critical condition. At this stage, the cause of the accident is under investigation by the local authorities.
“The Keller community has been devastated by this tragic event,” says Chief Executive, Alain Michaelis. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the families, friends and colleagues of those involved and our priority now is providing support to them during this difficult time.”
Update at 28 July 2017:
All of the injured but one have now been discharged from hospital.
The immediate focus after the accident was to provide care and support to those directly impacted. Trauma counselling was made available for the families of the deceased and injured as well as for colleagues. Practical and financial arrangements were also made to assist families to travel from their homes around South Africa to the various hospitals where the deceased and injured had been taken. The company also advanced financial support for funeral costs and other expenses and is providing assistance to families and victims to claim benefits from pension and insurance providers.
Funerals have been held for all of the deceased, attended by Franki Africa delegations.
Memorial services were arranged and held in Machadodorp (jointly with our client, the Nkomati Mine), and at Franki Africa branches in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
A Keller-wide online condolence board was established and the hundreds of messages that have been received from all over the world will form a memorial book. An online portal was also established for colleagues to make voluntary financial contributions to the victim’s families if they wished.
Franki Africa is providing preferential employment to family members of the deceased and injured wherever possible and appropriate and six people have already been employed.
Plans are being formulated to establish a new fund to benefit the wider Franki community longer term. In addition, we are looking to engage with a major road safety organisation on a partnership to improve road safety generally in South Africa.
Keller is assisting the police in their investigation and it’s too early to draw conclusions as to the cause of the collision, however the driver of the truck has been charged by the local police with manslaughter.
Notes to editors:
Keller is the world’s largest geotechnical contractor, providing technically advanced geotechnical solutions to the construction industry. With annual revenue of around £1.8bn, Keller has approximately 10,000 staff world-wide.
Keller is the clear market leader in the US, Canada, Australia and South Africa; it has prime positions in most established European markets and a strong profile in many developing markets.