Trapped beneath a 20-ton truck, two motorists spent their last moments alive watching emergency personnel frantically trying to rescue them in Pretoria on Tuesday.
The runaway truck’s brakes failed, its unlicensed driver said, and it careered through seven sets of traffic lights, smashing five vehicles in its path.
Two people were killed and four others were injured, said Metro police spokesperson Mel Vosloo.
”Another person is in a critical condition and two others are in a serious condition in the Unitas hospital,” he said, explaining that a sixth person had escaped with minor injuries.
The notorious Potgieter Street entrance into Pretoria from the Ben Schoeman highway has been the scene of many such accidents.
Arrestor beds were built for trucks with break failure but Vosloo said the driver ignored these as well as the compulsory truck stop at the top of the hill.
The truck stop was not manned by traffic officers at the time of the accident because of a personnel shortage owing to the Easter weekend road-safety effort.
The bodies of the dead couple, believed to be in their forties, had to be cut out of their white Fiat Uno. It had been dragged by the truck for four blocks, leaving a trail of oil and debris.
The 350 horsepower Mercedes Benz truck, with the Uno wedged underneath its front axle, came to a stop at the intersection of Potgieter and Church streets.
Tshwane emergency services spokesperson Johan Pieterse said the couple had been alive when emergency personnel arrived on the scene.
”But despite frantic efforts to release them from their vehicle and save them, they died,” he said.
Toys in the back of the stricken car initially led investigators to believe children had also been involved but a search revealed the driver and passenger had been the only occupants.
Police spokesperson Inspector Anton Breedt said the truck driver had been arrested following the discovery that he did not have the correct driver’s licence authorising him to drive the specific vehicle. A culpable homicide docket will be investigated.
”The truck will also be inspected,” he said.
The truck, carrying a closed 12m-long container, had been travelling from Durban to an unknown destination when the accident happened just before 10am. — Sapa