The number of students who died in the school minibus accident in South Africa has risen to thirteen.

The number of students who died this Monday when the school minibus they were traveling in collided with a truck in the south of Johannesburg, in the north of South Africa, has increased from eleven to thirteen, according to the authorities.

The minibus was transporting students in the Vanderbijlpark area of the aforementioned city, located in the Gauteng province, where the accident took place. In a statement, the Gauteng Department of Education confirmed that the number of fatalities “rises to 13 students”, after initially placing it at eleven and then twelve students who lost their lives at the scene of the tragedy.

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“Subsequently, another student died from the injuries sustained, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to 13,” he specified. “All information is preliminary, as investigations continue,” added the Department of Education, expressing its “sincere condolences to the families, students, and school communities affected during these extremely difficult times.” The Police, for their part, indicated that an investigation has been opened for possible negligent homicide and that the drivers of both vehicles, who survived the accident, will be questioned. Gauteng Traffic Police spokesperson Sello Maremane told local media that preliminary investigations indicate that the minibus driver attempted to overtake a vehicle in front and did not notice the presence of an approaching truck, resulting in a head-on collision. “It’s a really tragic day for us as a department,” underlined the head of the Gauteng Department of Education, Matome Chiloane, in statements reported by local media. In a statement, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his “sadness” over the incident and expressed his solidarity with the families, teachers, classmates, and friends of the victims. “Our children are the nation’s most precious asset and we must do everything possible, from complying with traffic regulations to the quality of service providers designated to transport students, to protect them,” Ramaphosa emphasized in a statement. The accident occurred after last week the South African Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, pointed out that the number of deaths in traffic accidents in South Africa is a “national disgrace”. Creecy made that comment after presenting statistics from the past Christmas holiday season in the country, in which 1,427 people died on South African roads in December, 5% less than in the same period of the previous year.