Bloody morning on KZN roads
2008-03-03 13:06
Durban - The death toll from three separate accidents in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday has risen to 25, transport officials said.
Another 13 were critically and seriously injured.
KwaZulu-Natal transport spokesperson Rajen Chinnaboo said the first two accidents took place at 07:30.
He said ten were killed in an accident on the N3 freeway at the M13 near Shongweni involving a bakkie and two cars while another three people were killed near Mtubatuba on the N2. A third accident claimed the lives of eleven people near Dundee in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
A 12th person involved in that crash later died at hospital.
John Shnell, head of the Road Traffic Inspectorate, said in the first accident a bakkie was travelling on the northbound freeway when the driver lost control.
Head-on collision
In a bid to avoid the bakkie, a Fiat Palio driver heading in the same direction also lost control.
Shnell said both cars then went across the centre medium and into the southbound lane.
He said the Palio rolled while the bakkie collided head-on with a red Citi Golf, before flying down a steep embankment.
The bakkie landed about 25m from the southbound freeway.
Two occupants of the Golf died on impact and firefighters had to use the Jaws of Life to extricate them.
Another eight people from the bakkie were declared dead at the scene.
A Sapa reporter at the scene said bodies and in some cases body parts were scattered across the southbound lane.
Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha said one person was critically injured while two others were in a serious condition.
One of the injured was the driver of the Palio.
Another man in a critical condition had to be airlifted to hospital.
The N3 Durban-bound was closed at the M13 (old N3 route to Durban).
Chinnaboo said at the same time, another accident was reported on the N2 northbound, heading towards Mtubatuba.
Bad morning
A car driver lost control and the vehicle overturned.
Six adults - teachers from Ntikini Primary School in Inquabumo - and a ten-year-old child were in the car.
Chinnaboo said two adults and the child died at the scene.
Another three were critically injured and one sustained serious injuries.
A third accident was reported at 09:45 on Nyanyadu Road, between Dundee and Oziweni.
Chinnaboo said in this crash, eleven people died.
The collision involved a minibus taxi and a truck carrying coal. The cause of the accident was unknown.
"Eleven died at the scene and six are in a critical condition," Chinnaboo said.
Speaking from the crash scene near the M13, the province's MEC for Safety and Security Bheki Cele said: "This is not a very good morning.
"We have lost ten people here and another three in Mtubatuba".
He said the bakkie in the first crash belonged to contractors working for Rainbow Chicken.
Cele said overloading was a big problem and "we believe that the eight people (in the back of the bakkie) should not have been there.
"It puts people as sitting ducks," he said.
Cele said while the law prohibited the transporting of people in the back of bakkies for profit, there was currently no prohibition on the transportation of people on the back of bakkies.
He said a full investigation was under way.
- SAPA