Johannesburg - An eight-year-old girl from Krugersdorp on the West Rand died while on holiday with her parents in the Eastern Cape after the quad bike on which she was riding landed on top of her.

Simone Filmer, who would have been in Grade 3 this year, was on holiday with her family at Sunrise on Sea near East London.

The 90cc quad bike that she had owned for the past two years, fell on her on December 21 and broke her neck.

Her parents, Adrian, 37, and Talita Filmer, 35, said she died immediately.

Adrian said: "She usually rode for about five minutes and then came back. On that day, she went riding and never returned."

He said Simone was wearing a crash helmet when she went for a ride of about 300m on one of the dirt roads near the beach.

When she did not return for some time her parents went to look for her and found her lying under the quad bike "that she loved so much".

Quad bike was modified

According to Talita, the only marks on her were scratches on her little finger and elbow that "one could have healed with a kiss and a band-aid".

Permanent residents at the resort decided some time ago that children were allowed to ride quad bikes only on the dirt roads near the beach.

There's only one tarred road, between the holiday homes.

Simone's quad bike apparently was modified so that it could go no faster than "the pace of an adult, walking".

Adrian said he had no idea what exactly had happened , because no one saw the accident.

Talita said Simone's three-year-old brother Adrian understood what had happened to his sister, after she explained her death to him by using an egg.

She broke the egg and explained: "Your sister's worldly shell has broken, just like an egg's body breaks, but, what's inside goes to Jesus." 

Story by Amanda Roestoff, Beeld appeared on News24.com