Deadly crashes mar first week of 2020
Twenty-nine people lost their lives in 10 accidents in the last eight days.
Image: iStock.
Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula has called for safety on the roads as holidaymakers head home before the start of the first school term.
This comes after 29 people lost their lives in 10 accidents in the last eight days. Official statistics have not yet been released.
On New Year’s Day, five people died after a car and petrol tanker collided on the N1, near Polokwane. Four people died at the scene and a fifth died in hospital.
On January 2, News24 reported that five people, including a pedestrian, died in three accidents in the Western Cape.
In one of the accidents, three people died when two vehicles collided on the R44 in Paarl.
The second crash took place in Nyanga when the driver of a Toyota Avanza hit two pedestrians. The driver died.
The third accident occurred in Somerset West, where a pedestrian was hit by a vehicle and killed on New Year’s Day.
In Limpopo, two people lost their lives when two vehicles collided on the N1, near Mokopane, on January 2. One of the vehicles, which was pulling a trailer, overturned after a puncture and another car hit it from behind.
On January 4, two women were seriously injured when a light motor vehicle collided with a truck in Magaliesberg.
On Sunday, 10 people died when the minibus taxi they were travelling in collided with a BMW sedan and both caught alight.
Nine people were treated at the accident scene before they were taken to various hospitals.
The accident happened on the R34, between Dundee and Vryheid, in KwaZulu-Natal.
Two days earlier, seven people were killed when the overloaded taxi they were travelling in rolled down an embankment while driving on the R102, between Umhlali and Salt Rock, in Durban.
The vehicle was carrying 22 people.
On Monday morning, 15 people were injured after a taxi rolled over on the N3 highway, near the Bergville Toll Plaza. The accident happened 20km outside Ladysmith in KwaZulu-Natal.
The injured people were treated at the scene before they were taken to various hospitals, according to ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring.
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
