Johannesburg - The notorious Moloto Road claimed another life early on Tuesday morning when one Putco bus crashed into another.
Tshwane emergency management services arrived on the scene at 5.30am to find one person dead, eight people seriously injured and 34 others with minor injuries.
“There were two buses. One had broken down and the other drove into it from behind, according to eyewitnesses,” emergency services spokesman Johan Pieterse said on Tuesday.
There was confusion as to who was killed. Pieterse said it was the driver of the moving bus.
But Putco said: “The drivers of both buses will be questioned” by authorities.
The injured were taken to Montana and Tshwane District hospitals.
The crash occurred on the southern route of Moloto Road just before Zambesi Drive.
Putco said the stationary bus was empty, its passengers having already been taken to their destination on a replacement bus.
“Indications are that the driver of bus 5295 did not see the stationary bus,” it said.
The road remained closed to traffic to allow the police to investigate.
Accidents along Moloto Road have killed more than 70 people and left many more seriously injured in the past 10 months.
The 120km road links Mpumalanga and Pretoria, and carries 60 000 commuters daily and 700 buses.
The largest single death toll in the past 12 months was in November when 29 people were killed after a bus and a truck collided near Kwaggafontein.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said then that a railway was needed to reduce the death toll in that corridor, but residents say no improvements have been made.
The Star