Two boys have died after a car crashed into a classroom at Banksia Road Primary School, in Greenacre, Sydney. Photo / AAP
Two boys have died after a car crashed into a classroom at Banksia Road Primary School, in Greenacre, Sydney. Photo / AAP
A 52-year-old woman has been charged with negligent driving causing death after her 4WD crashed into a southwest Sydney primary school, killing two young boys.
It's believed she may have been distracted by something inside her Toyota Kluger before it broke through the weatherboard walls of the demountable classroom atBanksia Road Primary School in Greenacre on Tuesday morning.
Police confirmed the boys, both aged 8, suffered cardiac arrest and died in hospital. Footage showed the car almost completely inside the classroom. There were 24 children aged between 7 and 11 in the Year Three classroom at the time.
Police charged the driver, identified as Maha Al-Shennag, with two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death, driving in a dangerous manner and negligent driving.
She was granted conditional bail to appear at Bankstown Local Court on Wednesday, November 29, newscom.au reported.
Channel 10 reporter Andrew Denney tweeted from the scene that police will allege the driver was "distracted by something in her car" before losing control.
Emergency crews were called at 9.45am, and found to children in cardiac arrest and another in a serious condition.
The two 8-year-old boys were critically injured and unconscious when they were taken to The Children's Hospital at Westmead. The boys were pronounced dead in hospital.
Two boys have died after a car crashed into a classroom at Banksia Road Primary School, in Greenacre, Sydney. Photo / AAP
The driver was uninjured but taken to hospital for mandatory blood and urine tests, police said.
A witness reported seeing an elderly woman at the scene who appeared distressed.
Children who were inside the classroom at the time have described the frightening disaster to the Daily Telegraph.
A student named Tarek said he started crying when the car crashed into the classroom.
"I saw one of my friends faint. I started crying. It sounded like a big pop," he said.
Year Four student Mariam Issmail was in a nearby classroom when the car smashed into the school.
"We were just doing work and all of a sudden we heard this big bang," she told AAP.
Mariam said multiple schoolmates were injured, adding that twin girls were among those hurt.
"[Students] were screaming, saying they wanted their mum, I want help," she said. Mariam's mother Khadige Issmail was at Bankstown when she heard the news. "Everything went blank," she said.
Parents collect their kids following the incident. Photo / AAP
An uncle of one of the students at the school said it was a tragedy.
"You've got mothers over there fainting, you've got paramedics dealing with all the mothers and everyone is just nervous that it's their child," Isaac Tayba told the Telegraph.
"I think she [the driver] drove in there and instead of maybe pressing the brake, she might have hit the accelerator but for me there should be no cars in the school.
"There's no excuse - no mother or anyone should be driving a car in the school."
Sydney radio presenter Ray Hadley was astonished at footage of the crash.
"It's gone completely into it," he said. "The whole car's inside the classroom."
NSW Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith told reporters police not looking at it as an intentional act.
