Truck with elephants topples
2003-07-31 17:21
Bushbuckridge - An elephant had to be put down when a truck that was transporting it from the Sabi Sands private game reserve to another reserve in KwaZulu-Natal overturned in Limpopo on Tuesday afternoon.
The truck overturned at about 15:00 at a T-junction near the Acornhoek shopping plaza in Acornhoek.
The truck was one of two trucks transporting three male elephants to a reserve near Pongola, said Tsotso Sehoole, spokesperson for Limpopo's department of finance and economic development that is also responsible for environmental affairs.
The truck is believed to have overturned under the weight of the elephants as the truck driver was turning right at the T-junction.
"The earth shook when the truck landed on it's side," said eyewitness Lefty Magagula.
Truck driver Ben van Rensburg said he was in the lowest "crawler" gear when he began the turn, but the wheels on one side of the truck left the ground.
"Elephants are very top-heavy, which makes the truck unstable," a shaken Van Rensburg said. "But the road also sloped to the left, which made it easier for the truck to tip over."
The elephants had been tranquillised for the journey, and were still awake after the accident.
A helicopter with vet in charge of the translocation, Dr Douw Grobler, arrived with minutes and Grobler immediately gave the two elephants another shot of tranquilliser.
One lane of the road was partially closed, while a crane was brought in from Phalaborwa, about 100km away, to lift the truck and the two crates containing the elephants back onto its wheels.
The cable took strain, however, and the truck slammed down from a metre in the air.
The roof of one crate was torn off. Concerned that the one elephant would be able to escape and hurt curious bystanders, Grobler decided to put him down.
"The elephant could have been very dangerous to the hundreds of bystanders at the accident scene," said Grobler on Thursday.
The crane lifted the elephant?s carcass out of the crate and, after a second attempt, the truck was back on its wheels at 20:20, to loud whistles from the crowd.
The surviving elephant was loaded onto the second truck to continue the journey to KwaZulu-Natal Private Game Reserve, while the dead elephant was returned to Sabi Sands.
The elephants had been captured by Catchco, a game capture company run by JJ van Altena and Dr Grobler.
Two more elephants were taken to the Phinda private game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday afternoon.
Sabi Sands had sold the elephants to the two reserves. An elephant can go for as much as R250 000. - African Eye News Service