DURBAN - What was meant to be a journey to celebrate the coming together of two people turned to tragedy when 15 women were killed in a horrific bus crash on the P-15 between Kranskop and Nkandla on Friday.
More than 30 people, including three children, were killed on KwaZulu-Natal roads over the Easter weekend.
The women who lost their lives on Good Friday had been on their way to witness an umembeso (traditional meeting where the groom presents gifts to his future wife’s family) between Mbhasobhi Mgwadi and Thandeka Danise when the bus they were in veered down an embankment.
The women, all from Bulwer, were from the groom-to-be’s family and the dead included neighbours.
Speaking to the Daily News on Monday, Mgwadi said his mother, Fikile Mgwadi, sister, Nokhanya Mgwadi and older sister, Nomthandazo Bhengu, were among the deceased. Mgwadi’s aunts Jabu Dlamini, Bongekile Mgwadi and Zingulu Dlamini and cousins Thembelihle Dlamini and Zandile Memela as well as four neighbours and a friend were among those killed in the crash.
“I met them in Pietermaritzburg to give them directions. I was driving behind them.
“Along the way, they were unsure of the directions and we stopped. I then drove ahead of them and they followed me. I saw they were not behind me and stopped at the Kranskop turn-off, where I was going to continue leading them to the venue.
“I sat and waited for a while and then got a phone call from a woman that there had been an accident,” he said.
The caller told him his sister Nokhanya had given her his contact number.
He raced to the scene and seconds later Nokhanya died in his arms.
Robert McKenzie, KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services media spokesperson, confirmed that 15 people had died in the accident and 13, including the driver, suffered injuries which ranged from critical to serious.
Mxolisi Kaunda, the MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, visited the crash scene on Friday and called for drivers to adhere to road regulations. On Monday, Kaunda met the bereaved families in Greytown.
Mgwadi said his family would begin funeral preparations once his father had returned from Greytown after meeting Kaunda.
Meanwhile during the early hours of Sunday morning, a driver succumbed to fatal injuries sustained when his car crashed into a tree on Fairway, in La Lucia.
Later that day, Facebook was flooded with tributes to the driver, Byron Abrahams, who had lost his life in the crash. Friends described him as a loving person with a charming personality.
Ten other people, including three children, were killed and nine others hospitalised following a crash involving three taxis on the N2 at Umumbe, near Port Shepstone on Monday.
Two people were killed in separate accidents in Pinetown and Ballito.
According to Garrith Jamieson of Rescue Care, a driver was killed when his car crashed into a crane in the early hours of Monday morning.
“Medics arrived to find that the car had left the roadway and collided into a construction site in the island.
“A single driver, believed to be in his thirties, had sustained major injuries and unfortunately there was nothing paramedics could do and he was declared deceased on the scene,” Jamieson said.
In Ballito, a man had stopped to assist his brother in changing a tyre when an out-of-control car drove into them.
Paul Herbst of IPSS Rescue said the man had stopped his Tata Indica behind his brother’s Toyota Corolla well into the emergency lane and was standing alongside the car when a black BMW crashed into them from behind.
“The man was crushed against his car. Eight other occupants of the three vehicles were transported from the collision to various hospitals with moderate to serious injuries,” Herbst said.
Three other people, one woman and two men, were also killed Monday afternoon when two taxis collided on the N3 in Mooi River.
All three were declared dead at the scene, while 35 other people who had injuries ranging from minor to moderate were taken to various facilities for further treatment, said Russel Meiring, spokesperson for ER24.
Traffic was heavily affected as a result of the collision, Meiring said.
As the Easter holiday weekend drew to a close on Monday, more than 16 000 vehicles left the province via the Mooi River toll plaza in an eight-hour period as their occupants headed home in time for work on Tuesday.
This exodus also marked the end of school holidays.
On Thursday, the N1 carried 172283 vehicles in 24 hours, the N2 73 621, the N3 136 094, the N4 129 489 vehicles and the N12 45 988. This comes to a total of just over 500 000 vehicles heading out on holiday on national routes.
Yesterday, the N3 toll concession indicated that traffic at the Mooi Toll Plaza peaked at about 2 050 cars per hour leaving the province with more than 1 200 entering the province per hour.
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) issued nearly 20000 fines across the country during the Easter weekend.
“An analysis of law enforcement statistics show that speeding, overloading of goods and driving without driver’s licences or public driver’s permits were major offences during this period,” the RTMC said.
“A total of 4605 drivers were caught for speeding, 430 for overloading of goods and 1907 for driving without driver’s licences and public driver’s permits.”
The RTMC said unroadworthy vehicles were another key factor in road safety.
The corporation said this year’s Easter death toll was expected to be higher than last year’s.