12 DIE IN WEEKEND OF ROAD CARNAGE

• Cape Argus
• Kieran Legg STAFF REPORTER kieran.legg@inl.co.za

12 DIE IN WEEKEND OF ROAD CARNAGE

 

17 passengers injured as bakkie overturns

A COLLISION that left seven dead set the tone for what was another weekend of carnage on the Western Cape’s roads with 12 people killed in crashes across the province.

Yesterday morning there was chaos on Lansdowne Road in Khayelitsha when emergency teams scrambled to treat 17 passengers who had been flung from the back of a bakkie.

Metro EMS spokesman Darren Francis said that when paramedics arrived, one passenger was already dead.

Three critically injured men and seven seriously injured men and women were taken to the Khayelitsha Hospital, and the rest were taken to a nearby clinic.

ER24 spokesman Christo Venter said the bakkie had overturned.

In an incident in Lansdowne Road, Rondebosch East, early yesterday, two men in their twenties were killed when their car overturned and crashed into a tree.

Francis said both men were declared dead on the scene.

InRawsonville, a 22-year-old driver was crushed to death when his bakkie overturned on a gravel road, throwing the man from the vehicle and landing on top of him.

On the R45 near Stellenbosch, a collision between two cars left six people injured.

The leg of one injured person was amputated above the ankle before the person was taken to Paarl Hospital, Francis said.

The other victims, two of whom were seriously injured, were taken to Stellenbosch Hospital.

Another man was killed when his car crashed on the N2 close to the M5 exit.

The crashes came after a three-car pileup in Citrusdal left seven dead on Friday night.

A taxi carrying farm workers, smashed into a car parked on the roadside. It overturned and ended up back on the road.

A car crashed into the taxi, killing the car driver on impact.

Police spokesman Colonel Themibinkosi Kinana said 16 passengers were in the taxi.

The driver and five passengers were found dead on the scene by emergency services workers.

Emergency teams stabilised four of the critically injured passengers before taking them to Tygerberg Hospital.

The others were taken to Citrusdal Hospital.

Western Cape traffic chief Kenny Africa said the number of fatalities on the province’s roads over the weekend was far too high.

Thirteen people died in crashes across the Western Cape last week, and Africa has urged drivers not to take risks on the road.