EC crashes leave one dead, 10 hurt

AT LEAST one person died and 10 others were critically injured in two separate road accidents in the Eastern Cape yesterday.

Near Sterkspruit one passenger was declared dead on the scene and seven people were critically injured when two vehicles collided head-on in the early hours.

Both vehicles, a Toyota Avanza and an unknown vehicle, caught fire on the R393 in Polmietfontein.

Meanwhile in East London, three men were rushed to Frere Hospital with serious injuries after their To- yota Corolla spun out of control and overturned a couple of times, flinging all three occupants out.

Provincial health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said those injured in Sterkspruit were taken to nearby Empilisweni Hospital.

Kupelo said emergency medical services, firefighters and police were dispatched to the Sterkspruit accident scene, while police and private and state paramedics were at the scene in the East London N2 accident.

The Daily Dispatch team arrived at the N2 scene opposite Highgate near the Hemingways off-ramp, just minutes after the car overturned.

Police and paramedics had not yet arrived.

The three occupants were seen lying on the road and the grass island metres apart, while one of them was flung into a nearby hill during the freak accident.

Passing motorists, including the Dispatch team, were trying to assist the injured people when paramedics, and later police, arrived.

The car’s battery and other parts were spotted about 70m from the wrecked vehicle.

The vehicle was travelling towards the off-ramp when it rolled over the island and landed in a ditch on the other side of the freeway. —