DURBAN – A truck fully laden with steel rods ploughed through the same intersection at the bottom of Durban’s Fields Hill where three years ago 24 people were killed in a horror smash.
KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate spokeswoman, Zinhle Mngomezulu, said that the vehicle had gone through the intersection of the M13 with Richmond Road at the bottom of Fields Hill in Pinetown.
While it was too early to comment on Wednesday’s accident, which left two people seriously injured and a further 11 with minor injuries, MngomeZulu said that it appeared that the driver of the truck had lost control of his vehicle at the bottom of the hill and not at the top.
“The matter is being investigated and then once the investigations are completed we can say exactly what happened.”
According to Ceron Lennox, spokeswoman for Rescue Care Paramedics, the driver had to be cut free by the eThekwini Metro Fire Brigade using the Jaws of Life.
On Sunday, wreaths were laid at the very intersection by the transport MECs of KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and North West provinces as part of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
The site was chosen because in September 2013 a truck driven by illegal immigrant Sanele May Goodness ploughed through the same intersection, killing 24 people and injuring scores more. It was one of the deadliest road accidents in South African history.
