A Mpumalanga family is in great distress after police allegedly flouted protocols when their son died in a car accident. File Picture.
Johannesburg - A Mpumalanga family is in great distress after police allegedly flouted protocols when their son died in a car accident.
Vanessa Venter, 51, is claiming that her human rights were trampled upon by the police after her son’s death on February 27.
Venter’s son, Sean Kellerman, is believed to have died on Plaston Road in White River. On the same date, two accidents were reported, in which four people died.
According to Venter, on the evening of her son’s death police failed to dispatch their forensic team to the scene to determine the cause of the accident.
Furthermore, no one has come forward to answer questions on how vehicles involved in the car accident were removed from the scene. It remains unclear if the police are investigating a case of culpable homicide.
Venter said one of the senior investigating officers at the station indicated that there was negligence and that he did not know why the forensic unit did not attend the accident scene to determine the cause of the accident by taking photos and measurements before the vehicles were removed from the scene.
“He also assumed that the forensic team could not go out to the scene as there was no vehicle available for them to go to the scene.”
Venter conceded that she was worried that the forensic team’s unavailability at the scene of the accident might compromise information submitted to the court.
“The case docket against the other driver will therefore most probably be thrown out of court due to incomplete and fictitious facts.”
Venter said she also had encountered challenges at the state mortuary when she went to identify her son.
“I was told that the investigating officer must accompany me, but the investigating officer was on leave and I had to wait for him to return to duty.
“After the identification was done, I requested my son’s personal effects, at which point the forensic mortuary informed me that I had no right to his belongings and they would give them to the funeral parlour.”
To date, Venter does not have her son’s personal effects which were obtained at the accident scene, despite the mortuary report indicating that these were handed to SAPS White River.
“When we asked the senior captain at the station about these he got irritated and shouted at us in front of everyone in the corridor of the police station, causing a scene.”
Venter said she discovered that the police were yet to work on the docket, apart from the constable’s declaration of the accident scene.
She said the investigating officer also admitted that he did not understand why the supporting documents such as forensic reports and photos were not in the docket.
“What I do not understand is the clear picture of lack of interest for the work the SAPS is appointed to do, also the lack of discipline and the total disregard of protocol, hence our picture of SAPS White River is that everyone does exactly what they want when they want. How do we trust or believe in our police as taxpayers?”
Mpumalanga SAPS spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhluli said the police forensic team was summoned to the scene after the accident.
“At times, due to being simultaneously called to different scenes, that might affect their reaction time in terms of their arrival at various crime scenes.”
Mdhluli said the allegations of a police captain who is said to have mistreated the victim’s family are viewed in a serious light by police management.
“Station commanders are strategically appointed in each station so that they deal with such challenges. Whenever clients are unhappy about the service, they are encouraged to report such matters to either the station commander, district commanders, or complains office at the office of the provincial commissioner.”
He added that police in Mpumalanga were not aware of a refusal to co-operate with the family.
The Star