PIETERMARITZBURG - One person was critically injured and four others were seriously injured when six trucks and a car were involved in three crashes on the N3 near the Peter Brown turn-off north of Pietermaritzburg in the early hours of Saturday morning, paramedics said.
A truck rolled across the southbound freeway and a car crashed into it, ER24 spokesman Ross Campbell said in a statement.
"Two secondary collisions involving five trucks, each about 100 metres further up from each other, then occurred. Five people were confirmed injured, one critically, four seriously," he said.
ER24 paramedics arrived on the scene at 1.50am, along with other private and provincial services. The driver of the car in the initial collision was found to have suffered critical injuries and was treated and transported to hospital by another service.
ER24, Pietermaritzburg fire service, and South African Police Service (SAPS) search and rescue personnel pulled together for a two-hour extraction of a trapped 31-year-old man who had suffered serious injuries from the second collision between two trucks.
He was treated with advanced life support interventions before being transported to Northdale Hospital for further care. Three more seriously injured people were treated and transported to hospital by other services on the scene. The local traffic department and SAPS were investigating, Campbell said.