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Road deaths take joy out of festivities

TARMAC TRAGEDY: On Christmas Eve a minibus taxi crashed and overturned after the driver of a car made a turn in front of it on Main Reef Road. some passengers were trapped and paramedics and metro police battled for hours with cutting torches. Pic. Mbuzeni Zulu. 26/12/06. © Sowetan.
TARMAC TRAGEDY: On Christmas Eve a minibus taxi crashed and overturned after the driver of a car made a turn in front of it on Main Reef Road. some passengers were trapped and paramedics and metro police battled for hours with cutting torches. Pic. Mbuzeni Zulu. 26/12/06. © Sowetan.

Zinhle Mapumulo, Dudu Busani, Mhlaba Memela and Sne Masuku

Zinhle Mapumulo, Dudu Busani, Mhlaba Memela and Sne Masuku

More than 24 people have died in road fatalities in just four days.

Statistics released on Friday showed that 907 people had died i n road accidents throughout the country during this festive season, with Gauteng leading at 194 deaths.

The death toll increased nationwide by at least 24 at the Christmas weekend with a major bus accident in KwaZulu-Natal on Sunday morning in which 12 people died.

The SA Road Link bus was carrying 71 passengers travelling from Johannesburg to Durban and the 12 died at the scene while 59 others were injured.

The driver allegedly lost control and the bus plunged onto a bridge near Liberty Mall in the Midlands.

Several accidents in Gauteng added up to 12 deaths.

Colin Msibi, spokesman for the Department of Transport, said official statistics on road deaths will be released today.

l In Gauteng a gruesome accident left four people dead and nine seriously injured on the N1 North near Pretoria on Saturday evening. ER24 spokesman Werner Vermaak said a minibus taxi driver allegedly lost control and the vehicle overturned.

l In Pretoria one man was killed and seven others injured in an accident between a truck and a bakkie.

The driver of the bakkie allegedly lost control of the vehicle and rolled in front of a truck on Friday afternoon.

l A handcuffed man was hit and killed by a car while running away from security guards after he allegedly snatched a bag in Germiston on Saturday morning.

l Also in Germiston, a pregnant paramedic was injured on Monday morning when a minibus taxi drove into the front of an ambulance she was parking.

l In Boksburg 17 people were injured when a minibus taxi overturned. Kobeli Mokheseng, Ekurhuleni metro police spokesman, said the taxi driver allegedly lost control of the vehicle and smashed into a car in front of him.

l Three people and a nine- month-old baby were injured when two unlicenced drivers collided in Elsburg on Saturday night.

l Two people, including a four- year-old child, were killed and five people were injured when a car hit a bridge on the M1 highway near Empire Road in Johannesburg on Monday night.

l Out of the 77 buses tested in KwaZulu-Natal from Sunday for roadworthiness by the Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI), 18 were found to be unroadworthy and have been impounded.

Five SA Road Link buses were impounded.

Rajen Chinaboo, RTI provincial spokesman, said: "Unroadworthy buses were impounded and drivers fined with standard fines.

"The buses' owners are planning to come and tow their buses away and take them back for a roadworthy test," he said.

SA Road Link could not respond by the time of printing.

Chinaboo said they would leave no stone unturned to impound all unroadworthy buses.

He said RTI had conducted roadworthy tests on all the buses coming in and going out of Durban.

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