At least 27 people were injured in a multiple vehicle collision on the N3 Durban-bound Highway near the Mooi River turn-off near Nottingham Road in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday morning‚ ER24 said.
ER24 paramedics‚ along with various other services‚ arrived on the scene to find numerous vehicles lying in the right-hand lane of the highway‚ said ER24 spokesman Russel Meiring. “Upon closer inspection‚ paramedics found that two trucks‚ two light motor vehicles and a bus had rear-ended each other. Wreckage from the vehicles were spread across the entire scene.
“Paramedics began assessing the patients on scene while local authorities began to divert the traffic‚ which had begun to backup.
“On assessment‚ paramedics found that approximately 27 people had been injured. One man‚ a driver of the truck‚ had sustained critical injuries while 26 others had sustained minor to moderate injuries‚” Meiring said.
The victims were treated for their injuries‚ and the critically injured man provided with advanced life support interventions‚ he said.
“Once treated‚ the patients were transported to various provincial hospitals for further treatment.
“The exact cause of the collision is not yet known but local authorities were on scene for investigations.”
The accident‚ which occurred at around 6am‚ was one of three accidents involving trucks in the province on Saturday morning‚ which left five people dead.
In a second accident‚ about two hours later‚ on the N2 freeway near Zinkwani on the KZN north coast‚ two people died in a horrific truck accident.
IPSS Medical Rescue's Paul Herbst described the scene as an "absolute wreckage [with] body parts all over the road".
"It appears that a truck went over a Mercedes-Benz‚" he said.
In a third incident around the same time‚ McKenzie said‚ three people died when a truck collided with a SUV on the R34‚ outside Empangeni in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
(With additional reporting from Matthew Savides and Suthentira Govender in our Durban newsroom)
- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE
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