Durban - It is still a mystery why a taxi went up a small hill and hurtled across the road, before tumbling down an embankment on to a railway track.
Sixteen people were killed in the horror crash that occurred at Shaka’s Head, outside Ballito, on Monday afternoon.
According to a witness, who wished to remain anonymous, the taxi involved had been travelling on the N2 northbound when it took the Shaka’s Rock exit.
She said it appeared that the prop shaft had fallen off the vehicle as it approached the offramp.
“Then it went up the hill, but failed to stop at the stop sign, flew over the bridge and landed on the other side.”
On the other side of the bridge was an embankment. Witnesses said when the taxi struck this, it bounced off and rolled down about 12m on to the railway line.
The driver and his assistant and two passengers are believed to have managed to jump from the moving taxi. They are currently in a stable, but critical condition at Stanger Hospital.
Another three were injured, but one of them has subsequently died.
The taxi landed on its roof and within minutes, a train travelling from Durban to Stanger crashed into it.
“Everyone covered their eyes when the train approached because we knew what was coming. When I looked there were body parts everywhere,” said the witness.
When The Mercury visited the scene on Tuesday there were no visible skid marks on the road indicating that the driver might have attempted to brake.
Thembi Khanyile had been on the train, travelling to her home in Etete. She said she did not see the crash, but heard a loud bang before the train stopped.
She said when passengers realised what had happened they jumped from the train and ran to where the crumpled taxi wreckage was.
“There was blood and body parts everywhere. There were arms and legs lying away from bodies. The images will forever be embedded in my memory,” she said.
Commuter trains had been affected by the crash and the Passenger Rail Agency of SA arranged for buses to take people to their destinations.
On Tuesday the scene was crawling with people, including the rail agency’s investigators.
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for transport Willies Mchunu said a forensic team had been deployed to investigate the cause of the crash.
“The Dolphin Coast Taxi Association has told us this is the third accident of this nature at the same bridge and all the cars involved were hit by trains so we are also going to bring engineers to assess the road and the guardrails,” he said.
Taxi boss Mdu Tony said six people had died in an accident last year and there had also been minor accidents on the same bridge which had not been reported in the press.
“The area gets very congested during peak hours.
“We would like the government to look at the guardrails to check if tougher reinforcements could be put there,” he said.
The Mercury