Cape Town - Four people were killed in a highway smash near Macassar shortly after sunset on Sunday.
Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa said a car had been driving in the outside lane near the petrol stations on the N2, adjacent to Macassar, and heading towards Cape Town.
The driver lost control and veered across the inside lane, smashing into a tree. The driver died on the scene about 30 minutes after the crash.
In the same incident, another driver lost control and also ploughed into a tree. The three people in the second vehicle were killed.
A third car was also involved, but no one was killed.
Keri Davids, spokeswoman for the provincial government Emergency Medical Services, said a man was removed from the wreckage of one of the vehicles.
He sustained a serious head injury and other wounds.
Two women suffered serious injuries and two others suffered multiple abrasions.
“Patients were transported to Vergelegen Medi-Clinic, Hottentots Holland Hospital and Tygerberg Hospital,” said Davids.
Further north, on the notorious “death stretch” of the N1 between Beaufort West and Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape, a taxi accident claimed two lives.
It was the first fatal taxi accident since traffic authorities began stopping drivers to check for fatigue, on December 22.
Africa said not all vehicles could be stopped, and a taxi driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel at around 3am and ploughed into the back of a moving truck.
The driver and the passenger behind him had died.
Cape Argus