Three die, 13 hurt in taxi crash
Minibus rolls, hits tree on trip to church
THREE passengers died and 13 were injured in a minibus taxi accident on the N2 near Blue Horizon Bay at the weekend. The accident, believed to have been caused by a burst tyre, occurred at about 10am on Saturday on the Port Elizabeth-bound highway between the Uitenhage off-ramp and the Blue Horizon Bay on-ramp.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Alwin Labans said the minibus taxi, which was transporting the passengers to a Port Elizabeth church, had been travelling from Hankey.
“It is suspected that a tyre-burst resulted in the fatal roll-over,” he said. “Tyre debris was noted on the road surface for 100m.”
Labans said it was not yet known which church the passengers were going to.
He said the vehicle had veered off the road, ploughed through farm fencing and rolled multiple times before coming to a stop when it hit a tree.
“After the accident, passengers were located inside, underneath and around the taxi.
“A total of 16 patients were attended to by the emergency medical services at the scene.”
Three passengers were declared dead at the scene, including a man found trapped in the front passenger seat, a woman in the rear of the taxi and another woman, whose body was found trapped beneath the vehicle.
Among the injured was a woman in serious condition, who was airlifted to hospital by the Aeromed 3 helicopter.
Six other passengers had lesser injuries and six had minor injuries.
“All the injured passengers were transported to Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth for further treatment,” Labans said.
He said units that responded to the accident included private emergency medical services, Nelson Mandela Bay Emergency Medical Services, traffic officials from Nelson Mandela Bay and the Sarah Baartman District Municipality, Fire and Emergency Services and the police.
The jaws of life were used to extricate the passengers. Other equipment was used to stabilise the unstable wreck while the emergency work was in progress.
Labans said a section of the N2 freeway had been closed off by traffic officials to allow the emergency vehicles and their staff to attend to the accident victims, while also creating a safe area for the emergency helicopter to land.
Police have opened a culpable homicide docket in connection with the accident.