Six people were killed after a taxi and a bakkie collided on the R503 road between Lichtenburg and Mafikeng in the North West Province.
The collision happened just after 5pm on Sunday.
North West community safety and transport management spokesperson, Oshebeng Koonyaditse said the taxi from Mahikeng was driving eastwards when it collided with the bakkie.
“That bakkie was overtaking another vehicle coming from the Lichtenburg direction. The deceased are four men including the driver and two women and are all from the taxi,” Koonyaditse said.
“Several other seriously injured passengers were taken to General Delarey Hospital in Lichtenburg and Mahikeng Provincial Hospital.”
According to Koonyaditse, the accident lead the road to be closed for almost five hours as the road was only opened at 9.30pm.
Meanwhile, the department’s member of the executive council (MEC), Sello Lehari sent condolences to the bereaved families and wished speedy recovery to the hospitalised injured.
In another similar incident, five people were killed in a collision between a Greyhound bus and a white Volkswagen Polo hatchback at the crossing of N6 national road and R702 road in the early hours of Sunday.
Free State police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Thabo Covane said three men and two women were declared dead at the scene.
Covane said the police were called to the scene and on arrival discovered that the two vehicles had crashed into each other.
He said according to the report, the bus was travelling in the southern direction towards Reddersburg and reportedly ran over the Polo which was travelling from the east direction to the west and failed to obey the stop sign.
"The Polo then rolled, resulting in three of its occupants being ejected while the driver and the other passenger remained trapped inside.
“All emergency services personnel were summoned to the scene and the five occupants in the Volkswagen Polo were declared dead. The driver of the bus was rushed to the local hospital for treatment of injuries,” Covane said.
IOL