Update: Six die after horror accident

It seems the accident occurred after the driver of a Nissan Juke lost control and collided with the back of a Toyota Corolla causing it to spin out of control and roll.

A Jeep with a trailer crashed against a rock wall next to the road when the trailer collided with the Juke. The occupants of the Jeep were not hurt.

One of the first bystanders on the scene told his friends and family how he and his brother pulled a woman, now identified as Bernine Booysen, from one of the wrecks after they saw flames. They could not manage to save more people because of the fire.

One of the deceased, who was thrown out of the Corolla, suspectedly landed in a pool of fuel and caught fire.

The brothers together with tow-truck drivers who arrived on the scene tried to save the man by attempting to pull him out of the flames with ropes.

“The flames were just too high. We could not go any closer without catching fire ourselves. It was horrible to watch the man squirm but there was nothing we could do,” one of the tow-truck drivers, who requested to stay anonymous, said.

They plan to go for counselling to get past the traumatic experience.

The rush to get the critically injured woman to hospital by ambulance was hindered by motorists who took up all four lanes of the N4 highway, even the lanes allocated for oncoming traffic.

Frantic pleas by paramedics and attempts by civilians to clear a lane for the ambulance seemed to work until it was blocked by oncoming police officers.

A brigade of marked and unmarked police vehicles followed by a black Lexus, blocked attempts and used the lane opened for the ambulance. They caused a further jam when they came head to head with the emergency services vehicles, who were forced to stop to let them pass.

Booysen succumbed to her wounds in hospital on Wednesday night. Her partner, who died on the scene has been identified as Ilse Jansen van Vuuren.

• Read more about the traffic jam and who the VIP in the Lexus was in a report by Gerhard Rheeder.