Traffic cop’s car turns turtle
Busy Oxford St intersection sees spectacular crash
ABUFFALO City Metro traffic vehicle and a VW Polo collided yesterday at the intersection of Oxford and Stephenson streets, causing a stretch of the busy road to be temporarily closed.
BCM spokeswoman Bathandwa Diamond said the Polo allegedly failed to comply with a red traffic light. “The Polo proceeded through, causing a collision with the traffic patrol vehicle, causing it to overturn and land on its roof.”
However, this differed from what bystanders claimed to see.
Patrick Xolo was among a number of witnesses who said the traffic vehicle, with its lights on, drove through the red light before being hit by the Polo, subsequently flipped and in the process hit a third car.
According to Diamond: “When the incident happened, Officer Thozama Maholwana was reacting to an emergency situation where a fellow traffic officer’s life was in danger.
“Maholwana was responding from the bottom of Oxford Street, in a south to north direction, towards Kimberly Road.
“Two other vehicles that were going down Oxford Street towards North Street collided with the traffic vehicle after it had overturned.
“At the scene, Maholwana was attended to by Red Alert emergency services with moderate injuries and taken to St Dominic’s Hospital and she has since been discharged,” said Diamond adding that “all the other drivers sustained slight injuries”.