Festive season off to a grim start
A gruesome start to the festive season with 20 road deaths were reported across the country.
|||Johannesburg - It’s a gruesome start to the holiday season with 20 road deaths reported since Friday.
The worst collision occurred in Eastern Cape on Saturday night when a taxi collided with a truck, resulting in the death of eight people.
It is believed the taxi hit a cow on the N9 between Cradock and Graaff-Reinet before the driver lost control of the vehicle and it collided head-on with a truck.
The drivers of both vehicles were among those who died.
KwaZulu-Natal was the province where most of the road accidents took place.
Four police officers died when a vehicle in which they were travelling collided with a minibus taxi in Harding on Friday. A fifth person was confirmed dead at the scene.
In Margate, two people died in a multiple car collision on the N2 on Friday. On Saturday, the driver of a bakkie was killed when he was thrown out of the vehicle after a collision on the N2 near the Umhlali River Bridge.
In Gauteng on Monday, a woman and a 4-year-old boy died when the taxi in which they were travelling, rolled on the R25 near Bronkhorstspruit. Reports from the scene indicate that the taxi was travelling from Groblersdal when it had a blow-out in one of the rear wheels and rolled several times.
Joburg Metro Police Department spokesman Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar told The Star three people died in two separate accidents.
Two women were killed near the N12 Lenasia off-ramp when a taxi collided with the Audi in which they were travelling.
A pedestrian died after he was knocked over by a delivery van on Main Reef Road in Roodepoort. The driver fled the scene, but was later arrested, said Minnaar.
Both the SA National Roads Agency and the N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) announced that an automated pay system on the highways became operational on Friday. Road users with electronic tags will no longer have to stop at any of the five plazas on the N1 North, but can make use of dedicated automated payment lanes.
N3TC, the company responsible for the 415km N3 toll route between Heidelberg and Cedara, also implemented an automated electronic tag payment option in selected lanes at all its toll plazas.
Report incidents either to the SAPS at 10111 or the National Traffic Call Centre at 012 665 6075.
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The Star
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