Fancy will this weekend hold activities to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of the seven students in the Rock Gutter tragedy on Jan. 12, 2015.
The students — Anique Alexander, 11; brothers Jamall Edwards, 12, and Jamalie Edwards, 14; Simonique Ballantyne, 13; Chanstacia Stay, 15; Racquel Ashton, 17; and Glenroy Michael, 17 — died when minibus HL636, in which they were travelling to school, careened down a steep section of road and plunged into the sea between Fancy and Owia.
Ballantyne and Stay’s bodies were never recovered from the sea. The other students were buried in Fancy after a joint funeral
The 10th-anniversary commemoration begins on Saturday at 6 p.m. with a candlelight march from Fancy to Rock Gutter and back at 6 p.m.
On Sunday morning, the deceased students’ relatives will lay wreaths on their graves.
The commemoration will culminate with a religious service at the Fancy Government School at 1 p.m. Sunday, the actual 10th anniversary of the tragedy.
The commemoration comes less than a year after the death of Pastor Edud Myers, 73, who was the conductor on the minivan.
On March 31, 2017, the Serious Offences Court upheld a no case submission in a preliminary inquiry in which Myers and Ravanon Nanton, then 36, who was the driver of the bus, were each charged with seven counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of the students.
In October 2022, Ballantyne’s father, Hesran Ballantyne, a superintendent of police, drew on his experience to console residents of Clare Valley after five villagers died in a bus crash in Sandy Bay on Sept. 11, 2022.
“Little did I know that when I lost my daughter and six other secondary school students who were all family to me, at the Rock Gutter tragedy on Jan 12, 2015 in a similar circumstance, that God was preparing me and my experience to bring a sense of comfort, healing and renewed hope to you the families of the deceased, and those affected,” Ballantyne said at the funeral in Clare Valley on Oct. 16, 2022.
Read also: School supplies tell tale of tragedy in Rock Gutter
10 years after this tragedy; has the public transport system become safer?
What a waste of life! It’s like throwing rubbish in a skip.
wen de guard rails gone up ?