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 76 crashes in wet weekend
    Staff Reporters
    November 09 2009 at 02:19PM 		Get IOL on your
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Torrential rain and strong winds across the Western Cape had emergency rescue staff scrambling to respond to scores of accidents on the province's roads over the weekend which left at least 10 people dead.

One private ambulance service, ER24, said it had dealt with 76 accidents between Friday night and the early hours of Monday morning.

In some instances the medics had come across accidents while they were racing to the site of another accident.

Paramedics had to contend with flooded roads en route to accident scenes.


Paramedics had to contend with flooded roads en route to accident scenes
Grabouw, in the Elgin Valley, recorded the highest rainfall figures over the weekend, receiving just under 65mm, while the Cape Town International Airport recorded 44mm of rain - the most recorded for that station during the month of November since 1957, according to the South African Weather Service.

On Friday night one person died and another was seriously injured in a collision on the R44 near Stellenbosch, said ER24's Tristan Wadeley .
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And three people died in a head-on collision along the R304 in Durbanville on Saturday morning.

Also on Saturday, five people were injured when the car they were travelling in ploughed into a wall in Epping, near Bofors Circle.

On Sunday, Metro Rescue staffers were called to an accident scene on the Hex River road outside Citrusdal.
The driver of the vehicle could not be found

A white Jetta appeared to have overturned, Smit said, and the body of a two-year-old was found trapped beneath the vehicle.

The driver of the vehicle could not be found.

In the early hours of on Sunday morning Metro paramedics found four men dead at the scene of a head-on collision along the N7 near the Vanrhynsdorp turnoff.

On Sunday night, a Honda and a Toyota Corolla collided outside Piketberg, leaving an 11-year-old dead and three people injured.

Metro Rescue's Anzelle Smit could not say how many accidents the organisation's members had attended to.

Early morning rain affected traffic heading into the city on Monday. The M5 near the old foot bridge close to the N2 was flooded and the left lane had to be closed to traffic, said the city's traffic spokesperson, Merle Lourens.

By 9am on Monday, traffic was still moving slowly, she said.

Several traffic lights around the city were not working, and this was also hampering the flow of traffic, according to Lourens.

Early on Monday morning, staffers from Metro Rescue headed up into the Kagga Kamma mountains above Ceres to search for a man who was reported to be missing there.

No further details were available at the time of going to print.

The heavy rains that battered the city on Friday, Saturday and yesterday, destroyed 60 homes in Khayelitsha's CCT Section.

About 150 residents - among them 30 babies - were affected by the rain.

Disaster Risk Management teams attended to the affected residents yesterday morning, handing out hot meals, clothing and building material.

But most of them refused to move, said disaster risk management spokesperson Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, opting instead to stay in their damaged homes.

A few people moved in with relatives, he said.

The organisation said it would remain on high alert.

Residents were left without electricity in Sea Point, Constantia, Bellville, Clovelly and Manenberg. Technicians restored the power to these areas yesterday morning.

Fears that the high winds on Saturday could further damage the stranded bulk carrier Seli 1 were allayed when it appeared the strengthening braces welded into the ship had held up against the fury of the weather.

Engineers appointed by salvors Smit built braces into the hull at strategic points during the past few weeks after the ship's hull showed signs of cracking.

"It was quite lumpy out there on Saturday, but the guys aboard the ship reported that the hull was holding up," said Smit's David Murray.

"It seems the strengthening work that was done helped a lot," he said.

    • This article was originally published on page 1 of Cape Argus on November 09, 2009
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