Durban - Two people were left injured during an alleged street racing and drifting incident before midnight on Sunday morning.
Two videos of the alleged street racing and drifting have also gone viral on social media.
The incident happened in the vicinity of the intersection of Umgeni Road and Intersite Avenue.
Emer-G-Med spokesperson Kyle van Reenen said their paramedics, together with Netcare 911, responded to a serious motor vehicle collision.
Van Reenen said on arrival, paramedics found that two vehicles had collided at high speed and high impact, with one of the vehicles leaving the roadway and ploughing into a crowd of people.
“Reports from the scene are that two people were left injured, one critically so. They were treated and stabilised on the scene before being taken to a nearby hospital for further care,” Van Reenen said.
“It is alleged that the incident is related to illegal street racing activities in the area, however, this is speculative and will form the subject of a SAPS investigation.”
Metro police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Parboo Sewpersad said shortly before midnight they received a call and they responded but while responding, they got a second call that there had been a crash at the same location.
Sewpersad said in these kinds of operations, you would even specialised police and a lot of police officers, and they do not have the manpower to police everything in eThekwini.
“The metro police need to be more well equipped to deal with all the demands in the city, such as drag racing. That area has been prone to drag racing. A lot of areas are prone,” Sewpersad said.
“Now who from the house would wake up and come out and become spectators? Obviously this is organised but it is illegal. It is illegal in terms of the Gathering Act 205 of 1993. It is illegal in terms of the National Road Traffic Act to hold an illegal event on a public road or part of a public road.”
Sewpersad requested that the vehicles that were being used should be impounded for further investigations.
Moreover, the incident has left Facebook users divided on who was to blame for the crash.
Avidesh Raghubar said: “There is something seriously wrong if people are trying to justify the reckless and negligent behaviour of these individuals who all contributed to the accident. They all engaged in an illegal and dangerous practice … Full stop!!”
Shanelle Alexandria Samuel said: “Races have been taking place there probably for more than 20 years... Those that race and go to watch the races, definitely understand the risks. But in this case, it was not the guy ’racing’ who caused it. The driver of the white van would have caused an accident even for someone that was not racing.”
Thina Ncayiyana said: “I love it when all of a sudden people defend drag racing, who was right, who was wrong....blah blah blah… I’m not Chinese I’m from Taiwan hogwash. It should have not happened nje in the first place but hey we are in Mzansi, the police know about this but not doing anything about it.”
Julian Pillay said: “First of all the robot was green, right of way to the BMW as for the white van that’s illegal to do that on an intersection robot… plus going in circles with a big van lol.”
Shannon Way said: “Well that’s what you get for being a show-off and reckless… How can you do doughnuts in traffic? Sorry for the BMW driver. That’s an extra cost to him because for sure the Avanza driver got no money to fix either car.”
Daily News