Durban - A truck driver was killed and several responding emergency personnel were injured in a series of crashes at one spot on the N3 near the Mariannhill Toll plaza on Wednesday morning.
The crashes resulted in the Durban-bound section being restricted to one lane, with the Road Traffic Inspectorate diverting traffic to alternative routes.
The clearance operation lasted for about eight hours.
Debris from four trucks, a fire tender, an emergency medical services ambulance and a car lay strewn across the road at around 7am.
The drama started when one truck crashed into another going in the same direction.
After this relatively minor accident, a third truck then crashed into the stationary vehicles.
An emergency medical services vehicle, a tow truck and an eThekwini Municipality vehicle responded to the incident.
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According to paramedics on the scene, it was this driver (in the third truck) who sustained fatal injuries,” said emergency medical services spokesman Robert McKenzie.
While rescue workers were busy, a fourth truck hit the KZN emergency medical services response vehicle, a fire tender and a tow truck, before coming to rest across the highway, down an embankment.
“Two KZN emergency medical services paramedics had just stepped out of their response vehicle when this happened and they were injured by the moving vehicles and flying debris. They sustained serious injuries and were treated by their colleagues. A fire fighter was also injured,” he said.
Six people were injured in the aftermath.
RTI spokeswoman Zinhle Mngomezulu said traffic was seriously affected.
“One lane was open to allow traffic through. We had to divert to Shongweni,” she said.
She said the crash was a combination of speed and vehicle deficiencies.
“In the initial crash I think it was just a matter of a safe following distance,” she said.
Mngomezulu said failed brakes were suspected to have led to the third truck piling into the other vehicles.
McKenzie said seven vehicles had been severely damaged.
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said Hillcrest SAPS were investigating a case of reckless/negligent driving and culpable homicide.
Meanwhile, 22 patients were injured when a stolen vehicle slammed into a bus transporting patients in Zululand on Wednesday.
McKenzie said the patients, from Nkandla and KwaMagwaza hospitals, were being transported by uThungulu emergency medical services paramedics to Ngwelezana hospital when the accident happened.
“They were driving along the R34 near Mevhamhlope when a car travelling in the opposite direction veered across the lane and collided head-on with the bus,” he said.
McKenzie said the paramedics checked on the passengers before going to check on the driver of the other vehicle, only to discover he had fled.
The vehicle had been reported stolen in Empangeni half-an-hour before the accident.
HOW THE ACCIDENT HAPPENED
1 Two heavy duty trucks pull over to the side of the road after a “minor incident” just before the Mariannhill Toll Plaza on the Durban-bound side of the N3.
2 A third truck crashes into the stationary trucks; that driver is killed.
3 Emergency services arrive at the scene and start treating the victims.
4 A fourth heavy duty truck ploughs into the accident scene, hitting a KZN EMS response vehicle, a fire tender and towing services bakkie, before coming to rest across the highway down an embankment.
5 Six people are injured – two paramedics, a fire fighter and the occupants of the trucks
The Mercury