Fourteen people were injured on Saturday in an accident involving three taxis and a car on the N1 highway near Polokwane, emergency services said.
”It appears as though a taxi collided head-on with a car,” said ER24 spokesperson Francois Prinsloo.
Two other taxis, believed to have been travelling in convoy, also collided with the car. The accident occurred at about 2am, 25km south of Polokwane.
No one was killed in the accident but seven people were seriously injured, Prinsloo said. The remaining seven people were treated for minor injuries.
”Two lanes [of the motorway] have been reopened and the highway should be completely opened by 4am,” Prinsloo said.
Meanwhile, one person was killed and seven others were injured in an accident between a truck and a bakkie in Pretoria, emergency services said.
The driver of the bakkie apparently lost control of the vehicle and rolled in front of a 26-wheeler truck on the N4 Platinum highway on Friday afternoon, ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said.
The bakkie was transporting members of a family when the driver lost control. All the passengers were flung out on to the road side. One of them died at the scene while another landed 10m from the vehicle and was in a critical condition.
”He had to be placed on life support at the scene,” said Vermaak.
The driver of the truck was not injured.
”According to one of the patients, they were all family and close friends on their way to Mozambique to visit other family members,” Vermaak said. — Sapa