Not in this instance, but in most collisions with trucks accidents are caused by other vehicles, not trucks. Other forms of heavy duty transport dominate in most other countries, but because of the rail monopoly (as one example) road transport becomes a relatively cheap way to transport goods in South Africa. My condolences to those who lost their lives, as the two and a half hour delay to me is minor in comparison. More vigilant driving and vehicle maintenance is to be encouraged for all road users.

My condolences to the bereaved family and friends. What concerns me, is were there CHOCK blocks behind the wheels to assist in holding back the truck? Had there been, it would probably have prevented this tragic incident. However, I would like to make a comment, requesting people NOT to comment only when such tragic incidents occur. It amazes me how quickly people complain about trucks and buses, but had our law enforcements agencies been more serious about their work, we would have lesser of these kinds of incidents. The law enforcement agencies, should target ANY motor vehicle on our roads. One will be surprised at how many LMV are unlicensed, not roadworthy, BUT people complain about trucks and buses. My other concern is, should you be one who exceeds any speed limit on our roads, drives with defective tyres, indicators, lights, or under the influence of alcohol, PLEASE don't comment on such incidents where you criticise the truck or bus owners, drivers, law enforcement authorities, as you are JUST as guilty. We must remove the log out of our own eye before removing the splinter out of someone else’s eye!! A main reason for our some law enforcement officers not charging transgressors of the National Road Traffic Act, is because the financial incentive offered by some motorists to these officers, is better than receiving a fine and " helps " the officer/s " increase " his/her salary. Such motorists offering bribes, are better known as " Meals on Wheels ". Until such time that Law enforcement officers ALL ( there are officers who do their jobs properly with passion )take their jobs SERIOUSLY, the quicker our roads will become safer. So, in closing, should you be one of these Transgressors, take a SERIOUS look at yourself and HELP all us SA road users to stop these unnecessary carnages on our roads.

The M3 is a dangerous road. At peak traffic one side is crawling while on the other side people often drive at well over the speed limit, taking the bends like little old racing drivers. With all the bends and inclines, a speeding vehicle jumping the centre island could cause a horrible accident, and the poor suckers on the crawling side would be unable to do a thing about it. On most sections of the M3 there are no barriers on the centre island at all. I am constantly on the lookout for some nutter with a sense of speeding entitlement to come sailing across at me. The irony is that the traffic police could make an absolute mint if they trapped regularly anywhere along the M3 - call a spade a shovel: it is used by people in very expensive vehicles a lot of the time and they would be well able to cough up the fines for speeding. BTW, is it just me or does anyone else notice that stopping at red traffic lights has become optional recently? It's as if the rules of the road have been re-written, if all this last-minute acceleration at the sight of red signal is anything to go by.

I also witnessed this tragic accident on my way to town with my sons. I just can't help feeling that this could have been avoided if rocks/bricks had been placed in front of the tyres to prevent the lorry from rolling forward. This should be standard procedure for goddness' sake! A little forethought goes a long way and in this case could have prevented a ghastly death and injuries.

Gee Wiz man, could've been me, I saw this truck on the side of the road yesterday when going home @ about 4:30! Must have happened minutes after i went by! What a tragic thing to happen.

"Each year, there are over 2000 deaths a year on the roads in the Western Cape alone. 19000 deaths across the entire country." I'm not entirely sure if your statistic are accurate but the answer is simple: Population Control! As for the people blaming trucks for accidents: yes, there are a lot of trucks on the road that are not roadworthy, and absolutely something should be done about that. But what about the taxis? More people are killed in taxi accidents, usually directly related to the fact that almost more than half of the taxis on the road are unroadworthy, unlicensed and driven by imbeciles! Those taxi drivers don't pay fines, don't service their vehicles and feel absolutely no responsibility for the lives of the passengers they carry. So before we start saying that restrictions should be made on the use of trucks on our roads, lets ban the taxis first.

Trucks break down regularly on our roads, and their drivers drive irresponsibly. The owners of trucks that cause such mayhem should be heavily fined. Companies should stop trying to save money by not maintaining their vehicles and not keeping them safe.

Emergency workers worked relentlessly till past 3am this morning to clear the accident scene. I live close by and watched them recover the truck at about that hour. I have to commend traffic officials at the scene who although were supposed to have gone off duty at 6.30pm were still on duty at that hour.

To say that trucks should be banned in peak hours is pretty short sighted (this truck was going in the opposite direction to the peak hour traffic anyway). Trucks are an integral part of Cape Town's economy - bans/limitations placed on trucks would probably increase costs/inflation on daily items we purchase. A more stingent policy of policing trucks and buses to ensure their road worthiness would be much more effective.

Condolences to the victims. Why did the truck roll away? Because the brakes failed? As for traffic services, all they did was close off the road and did not control the intersections along the diverted route. This is why there was such gridlock.