PICTURES: Taxi burns on M7 bridge
The road was closed by concerned onlookers before the Metro Police and other emergency services arrived on the scene.
CONCERNED onlookers closed the M7 North Park Bridge to prevent injury to others while a taxi was engulfed in flames on Tuesday, 29 March. At about 8.10am, taxi driver, Thabiso Madlala, realised there was a problem as his taxi jerked a few times before coming to a stop at the robot on the bridge.
He had five passengers on board bound for Pinetown when smoke started billowing from the engine compartment and he instructed the passengers to flee. “I knew there was something wrong with the taxi after it started jerking. I drove for less than a metre before it switched off,” Madlala explained.
He then got out and opened the engine compartment to disconnect the battery and then fled himself. “As I jumped out to disconnect the battery, the taxi was already smoking,” he explained. The taxi was engulfed with flames within a few minutes and rolled back onto the bridge where it burned profusely.
Emergency services arrived and the fire department was unable to extinguish the flames as the fuel tank was full. “I had filled the tank the night before and had only done two short trips on the full tank of fuel,” he said.
Eye witness, Peter Williams, said he was travelling on Old Main Road towards Queensburgh when he saw commuters running from a taxi at the North Park on-ramp of the M7 south-bound. “The taxi had flames and smoke billowing from inside the taxi, causing the windscreen and windows to burst out. The taxi rolled backwards and came to a stop against the bridge where the fire became intense, spewing black smoke into the sky,” explained Williams.
The road was closed by concerned onlookers before Metro Police and other emergency services arrived on the scene. The taxi owner, who lives in Malvern, arrived soon thereafter and realised that his taxi had been reduced to a burnt-out shell. Nobody was injured and the road was reopened at 9.15am.
The Fire Department’s Divisional Commander, Dennis Govender, confirmed that only one was injured. “When we got to the scene we found that the vehicle was well alight. The taxi had highly flammable liquid and we used foam to extinguish the fire. All passengers were accounted for and no people were injured,” he said.
