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Injuries, chaos as rains lash roadways

RESCUE MISSION: Paramedics attend to the injured after a collision between a minibus taxi and a bus on Umgeni Road near the Durban station. Pic. NETCARE 911
RESCUE MISSION: Paramedics attend to the injured after a collision between a minibus taxi and a bus on Umgeni Road near the Durban station. Pic. NETCARE 911

HEAVY rains and waterlogged roads across KwaZulu-Natal caused havoc on Tuesday night, leaving one person dead and more than 20 others injured.

The province experienced a heavy downpour after a three-day heatwave.

Netcare 911 paramedics responded to more than 15 accidents since early Tuesday evening, which left scores injured.

In the most serious incident a man was killed and another seriously injured when a car, a bakkie and a light delivery vehicle collided on the R103 Cedara road in the Midlands.

"It is thought that all parties were travelling in the same direction towards Hilton when the lead vehicle lost control, causing all three to slam into one another.

"They came to rest in the middle of the roadway. The front seat passenger of the car was killed and another man seated in the back of the vehicle was seriously injured," said Netcare spokesperson Jeff Wicks.

The occupants of the bakkie and delivery vehicle were not injured.

In another incident nine passengers of a taxi were injured when it overturned at Isipingo. The driver lost control while negotiating a bend. The injured were treated and stabilised at the scene before they were taken to hospital.

Fifteen people were injured, three seriously, when the minibus taxi in which they were travelling collided with a bus on Umgeni Road near Durban Station. The driver of the fully-laden taxi was unable to stop in time and ploughed into the back of the bus.

"The driver and front passenger of the taxi were lucky to emerge alive. The injured were treated and stabilised before they were transported to Addington and Netcare St Augustine'hospitals," said Wicks.

In another incident, three people were seriously injured when a minibus taxi drove into a light pole on Sarnia Road. The taxi slid sideways into the pole, the force causing the vehicle to bend around the reinforced steel.

A four-car pile-up on the N2 near Joyner Road left three people seriously injured, while a three-car pile-up on South Coast Road seriously injured one person.

Two traffic officers are in a serious but stable condition after their vehicle overturned near the Seadoon off-ramp.

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