The community of St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School and Church in Moorebank have thanked God for the “miracle” that children weren’t hurt when a truck crashed through the church and school grounds last week.
The grounds were near-empty on Saturday 29 June when at around 1:15pm a truck drove through the intersection of Newbridge Rd and Nuwarra Rd in Moorebank, ploughing through the church and school carpark, damaging 19 vehicles, before crashing into a classroom.
The driver, who has since been charged with alleged possession of illicit drugs, was trapped in his cabin for more than half an hour, while four people were left injured and taken to hospital.
Despite the structural blow to the church and school, the community is praising God for the “miracle” that no children were hurt.
“It really is a miracle, through God and the intercession of St Joseph, that the children and the community were protected from a much more devastating scenario,” said Maria Saur, a mother from St Joseph’s Primary.
“My husband and I are so grateful to God that the incident happened when there was no school, especially after seeing some of the photos inside the classroom.”
Maria’s daughter Carissa’s classroom was damaged in the accident.
“When I saw the footage of how fast the truck was going and how it went straight through the room, I thanked God that it was a Saturday and no one was in the school,” she said.
“Can you even imagine if it had been a school day?”
Young Carissa broke down in tears when she heard what happened, worried about the state of her pencil case.
“We knew where she sat in the classroom, and to see what could have happened makes us very emotional,” said Maria.
Parish priest Fr Chris de Sousa CRS was also thankful no more harm was done.
“Thanks be to God. A real miracle, the car park was full of cars earlier,” he said.
“It happened at a time where a few people were just coming into the church to pray. Thank goodness it wasn’t during a school week with the students here or during Mass—we constantly have people coming in here to pray.”