Accident season gets under way

THE ANNUAL exodus from Gauteng to the KwaZulu-Natal coast has begun and yesterday 2 100 cars were recorded passing through the Mariannhill Toll Plaza, with a crash bringing traffic to a standstill near Ashburton.

In the most serious accident so far this season, seven people died in a crash in Pongola on Thursday afternoon, while 16 were critically injured.

The KZN transport department said preliminary reports indicated the taxi had collided with a Toyota Tazz carrying five passengers on the N2, in Mdonini, near Pongola. Spokesman Kwanele Ncalane, said the taxi was overloaded.

The driver and five men in the Tazz died on the scene and a woman passenger died later in hospital.

“The 16 other occupants in the minibus taxi are said to be in a critical state,” said Ncalane.

Yesterday, heavy traffic between Durban and Joburg came to a standstill near Ashburton when a driver suffered a blackout and hit a bakkie, a bus and another vehicle.

No one was seriously injured in the incident.