Johannesburg - The Minister of Transport, Dr. Blade Nzimande on Tuesday passed his condolences to the families and friends of the six deceased persons who died at Kameeldrift in the Gauteng side of the R573 Moloto road.
On Monday, preliminary investigations indicated that a Putco Bus, an SBV Armored vehicle and a Toyota Avanza type vehicles got involved in a head-on collision.
Nzimande had directed the Road Traffic Management Corporation directed to expedite investigations into the cause of the carnage and urged the Road Accident Fund to give the family of the deceased and the injured the necessary support and comfort.
“All attempts have been made to track and inform the next of kin of the deceased and the injured of this unfortunate incident,” said Nzimande.
“Sanral is currently upgrading the Mpumalanga and the Limpopo side of this road to the value of R4.5bn. This includes the improvement of road safety measures."
The 160km stretch of the Moloto Road runs through the provinces of Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo, and is used by close to 60 000 commuters on a daily basis.
The RTMC said there were eighty people on the bus of which 23 were transported to the hospital and four died. The Toyota had two occupants and the SBV had three occupants, two sustained injuries and one died on Tuesday morning, the crash claimed its sixth victim in hospital.
"It is alleged that the driver of the SBV vehicle lost control and collided head-on with the bus and then the Avanza drove into the bus," said Nzimande.
Meanwhile, the SBV services confirmed that one of the company’s armoured vehicles was involved in a collision with a bus leaving one dead and two of their employees critical injured and were being treated in hospital.
“I am deeply saddened that this accident has resulted in the loss of another life. I wish to extend our deepest sympathies to their families, and wish those that have been injured a speedy recovery,” said Mark Barrett, CEO, SBV.
Barrett said SBV extends its sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and we wish the passengers and our staff members, who were injured in the accident a speedy recovery.