A baby and four others were killed in a three-car pile-up between Barkley West and Kimberley in the Northern Cape, police said on Monday.
The accident occurred on Sunday evening when the driver of an Opel Kadet collided head-on with an oncoming Toyota Corolla, said Captain Tony Modise.
Two men, a woman and a baby from the Opel died on the scene. The driver of the Corolla also died, he said.
A third vehicle was believed to have smashed into the Kadet in an attempt to avoid the accident. Its four passengers were seriously injured, including three children aged two, five and six.
Modise said the Jaws of Life were used to free the bodies from the Corolla and Kadet.
”It is not known at this stage which vehicle travelled from which direction, as all three vehicles were found on both sides of the road, metres away from each other.”
A case of culpable homicide will be investigated.
Meanwhile, the Stormvoël tollgate on the N1 highway near Pretoria has been reopened after a tanker’s horse caught fire on Sunday night, Tshwane metro police said.
”The unhurt driver of the truck jumped out of the vehicle when he noticed that it was on fire,” said spokesperson Louise Brits.
Police and emergency services put out the flames. ”The fire may have been caused by mechanical problems,” said Brits.
The road had been closed from the Stormvoël tollgate right up to the N4 offramp.
Elsewhere, a 39-year-old man died after his car overturned on the Kuruman-Kathu road on Sunday morning, Northern Cape police said, and three people died, eight were seriously hurt and 10 slightly injured when two taxis collided on the Senekal-Arlington road, police in the eastern Free State said on Sunday. — Sapa