The Easter holidays got off to a bloody start – as far more people took to the roads than in previous years.
By last night, at least 20 people had died in a number of accidents, including a two-month-old baby and a man in a head-on collision outside Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Police said a family of six had been travelling from Gauteng to Uitenhage when their Toyota Corolla was involved in a head-on collision on the R75 Uitenhage Road. The other five occupants of the Corolla, including the infant’s mother, were taken to Cuyler hospital for treatment.
In Mpumalanga, 11 people died when two minibus taxis collided on the N4 near Ngodwana about midnight on Thursday, while a teenager died and eight others were injured on Gauteng’s R82 road near Walkerville, when a taxi collided with a bakkie.
Road Traffic Management Corporation enforcement co-ordination senior manager Ashref Ismail said although traffic on the N1 and N4 highways had subsided yesterday when compared to Thursday evening and the early hours of yesterday morning, the roads were still busier than normal. “The current traffic volume is much bigger than last Easter.”
A large number of crashes have been due to tyre failure. Ismail said many cars were found to be using sub-standard tyres while other cars had been overloaded.
Netcare spokesman Chris Botha said on Friday night that night emergency services nationwide had attended to five major accidents which had all involved fatalities.
Joburg metro police spokesman Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said six vehicles were found to be non-roadworthy during a road- block in Marlboro, north of Joburg, on Thursday.
“Licences were confiscated and drivers were issued with notices to discontinue the use of their cars,” he said.
Minnaar said up to 24 traffic fines were issued for expired driving and vehicle licences. He said during the six-hour roadblock, 600 vehicles had been stopped and 311 passengers searched.
Ekurhuleni metro police spokesman Wilfred Kgasago said 44 accidents were recorded during the period of an Easter roadblock on Thursday. - Saturday Star