A driver survived a car accident in Tongaat on Tuesday but was electrocuted by a hidden network of illegal electrical connections when he tried to climb from the wreckage.
IPSS Medical Rescue’s Paul Herbst said the driver lost control of his car while travelling on the R102 near Tongaat. The car veered off the road and rolled multiple times.
Herbst said the car came to rest in thick brush in a roadside ditch. It appears the man had tried to climb out of the car, when he came into contact with a live illegal electricity connection.
“The man’s seriously injured partner was entrapped in the crumpled wreckage, and medics had to wait for Eskom technicians to isolate a nearby transformers,” said Herbst.
“Once the connections were shut off, IPSS paramedics made their way to the woman. She was treated and stabilised in the car before she was carefully extricated by Tongaat Fire Department using the jaws of life to free her."