Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport says it is “deeply concerned” about the number of fatalities on the province’s roads at the weekend, especially as the festive season approaches.
This emerged after 10 people died and at least 34 were injured on KZN roads since Saturday.
It was a particularly bad weekend, ER24 spokesman, Andre Visser, said. “There is a higher risk of accidents over the festive season, but this is not because of people driving badly, but because there are just a lot more vehicles on the road, and a lot more vehicles travelling long distances.”
Kwanele Ncalane, the spokesman for the KZN Department of Transport, said:
“We have to continue to make sure that police are always deployed on the roads, and we are aiming to create a new generation of drivers, where people remember the basics: don’t speed, and don’t drink and drive.”
The death of a passenger yesterday brought the death toll from a bakkie crash in KZN on Saturday to five.
The driver of the bakkie, carrying 15 people to a funeral in the Eastern Cape, lost control of the vehicle, which overturned on the R61 near St Michaels-on-Sea. Four people died at the scene.
“Emergency services arrived at the scene and found that the crumpled remains of the vehicle had come to rest about 200m down the road after ejecting the passengers along the way,” said Netcare 911 spokesman Chris Botha.
In Merewent, nine people sustained injuries on Sunday morning after a taxi rolled on Himalaya Road.
Visser said the taxi apparently veered out of control before overturning, ejecting some of the passengers.
On Saturday, three people died and five were injured in a collision between a truck and two cars on the N3 near Midmar Dam. The cause of the accident was unclear.
Also on Saturday, two people were killed and five injured when their vehicle rolled on the R27 near Ballito.
On the same day, a two-vehicle collision on Campsdrift Road near Makro in Pietermaritzburg left five people injured
. - Daily News