Cape Town - Traffic on the N1 near Vasco Boulevard was badly disrupted during peak hour on Monday when the trailer of a large truck caught fire.
No one was injured and the driver was able to unhitch the trailer to save the truck, said Cape Town traffic spokeswoman Maxine Jordaan.
But the fire closed two lanes of the highway into Cape Town, with only the lane on the extreme right open.
The fire started about 5.30am, when a tyre on one of the trailer’s wheels burst, Jordaan said.
The resulting sparks set boxes containing plastic bottles of kitchen cleaning fluid alight, and because of the ammonia content of the fluid, bottles began to explode, she said.
The fire was extinguished by 8.30am and a second lane was opened to traffic as workers began cleaning up.
At the weekend, two men were killed and a woman was injured in three crashes in stormy weather. One of the drivers had stopped to help at a crash scene when another motorist ran into him.
In the early hours on Sunday, a man who had crashed into a fence on Ottery Road was knocked down while crossing the road afterwards.
Provincial police spokesman Tembinkosi Kinana said they received a report that a 41-year-old driving a Toyota Corolla had veered off the road and hit a fence and a tree. The driver left the car to get help.
“While he was busy trying to get some help, another vehicle appeared and hit him,” Kinana said. The man was declared dead at the scene.
A case of culpable homicide was being investigated. No arrests had been made by late on Sunday.
In another crash late on Saturday night, a good Samaritan was killed while stopping to help motorists who had been in a collision on the N2.
The accident eventually resulted in a five-vehicle pile-up on the N2 outgoing lane near the Vanguard Drive turn-off.
Cape Town Traffic Services’ Jordaan confirmed a man had been killed when he had stopped to help.
Jordaan said initially two vehicles had been involved in a collision.
The vehicles were moved to the side of the road, when a third motorist arrived and offered to help. As the driver was assisting the two motorists on the side of the road, he was knocked down by a fourth vehicle.
A fifth car then crashed into the other four. The dead man was in his late thirties. Five people were slightly injured.
Meanwhile, on Sunday at 6.15am, a woman driving a red Mazda 6, who had swerved on to the side of the road on Hospital Bend, was knocked down after getting out of her car.
It was believed the 49-year-old woman lost control of the Mazda as she was approaching the M3 but managed to pull over to the side of the road.
Jordaan said the woman got out of the vehicle and was standing on the side of the road when a motorist in a white Golf knocked her down.