DURBAN – Seven people have died and 30 were injured in a multiple vehicle collision on the N3 Johannesburg-bound carriageway in the Hidcote KZN Midlands region on Monday.
Robert Mckenzie, spokesperson for the KZN Emergency Medical Services, said the collision occurred just before 4pm and involved a bus, four cars, a truck and a tanker carrying a hazardous substance. Some of the vehicles had caught alight after the collision.
He said 30 patients with injuries ranging from minor to serious were being treated at the scene and being transported to the hospital.
“Seven fatalities all from one vehicle, a bakkie, which was between the bus and tanker,” said Mckenzie.
Mckenzie said the bodies were discovered only after most of the fire was extinguished.
He said by Monday evening at 6pm, firefighters had managed to contain the blaze however there was still smoke rising from the wreckage of the tanker.
He said the N3 highway in the vicinity of Hidcote is currently still closed.
THE MERCURY