Cape Town - Three children were among the seven people killed when a bus ploughed through a taxi on the N1 near Touws River late on Monday night.
Western Cape Traffic spokesman Kenny Africa said the bus, belonging to a company operating from the Eastern Cape, was travelling from the province towards Cape Town. Sharing the N1 with the coach was a taxi on its way to Vredenburg.
At around 11.50pm, at the R44 turn-off towards Ceres, the taxi - which was travelling in the far left lane - made a right turn in front of the bus to exit the highway.
The collision destroyed the minibus, killing seven of the 18 people crammed into the vehicle. Among the dead were two men, two women and three children, one just four years old. The rest of their ages were still unknown.
Emergency services spokesman Robert Daniels said the 11 survivors inside the taxi were rushed to Worcester Provincial Hospital. “Three remain in a critical condition.”
Africa said none of the passengers on the bus was injured.
Meanwhile, a police vehicle and a car collided on the R102 on Tuesday morning. At the time of going to press, police had not yet responded to reporters’ queries. However, a Cape Argus photographer at the site of the crash said a forensic pathology services van was parked nearby.
The two crashes come just a few days after the national road death statistics were released on Friday.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters warned in a statement that while road accidents during the festive season had dropped by 2.5 percent this year, carnage on the country’s streets continued to put a strain on the government’s budget.
While there were 1 376 fatalities in 2013, this figure experienced a minor drop to 1 368 over the recent Christmas season.
In the Western Cape 108 people were killed on the road. In the Eastern Cape road crashes left 198 people dead, with 174 in Limpopo, 135 in Mpumalanga, 113 in the Free State, 102 in North West and 44 in the Northern Cape.
The City of Cape Town has been trying to crack down on lawless drivers.
In an official statement, mayoral committee member for Safety and Security JP Smith said traffic officials had arrested 19 suspects in recent days on various charges including one motorist for outstanding warrants, 15 for drunk driving as well as three others for reckless and negligent driving.
They also impounded 50 public transport vehicles and issued 2 323 fines.
Smith described how one driver tried to fake a seizure after failing his breathalyser test. When officers took him to the Shadow Centre to draw blood, he soiled himself and was escorted to a toilet, where he tried to escape through the bathroom window.
Even when cops jumped into restrain him, he attempted to escape again, trying to bite one of the officers, said Smith.
“It is amazing how these law-breakers run out of bravado as soon as we close in. The efforts of this driver to evade the long arm of the law would be quite funny if this wasn’t such a serious matter.
“How many more times do we need to tell people that drinking and driving is not only against the law, but a dangerously stupid thing to do?”
Cape Argus