One woman was killed and twenty others injured, one woman critically, when a minibus taxi and a car collided on the M4 south bound carriageway near the M7 Edwin Swales Drive Bridge this afternoon.
It is thought that both vehicles were travelling away from the city when the minibus taxi sideswiped the car while executing a lane change. The driver then lost control of the fully laden minibus which slammed into temporary concrete barriers which had been used to cordon a construction area. The taxi ploughed head on into the barrier through a space for construction workers to gain access before overturning and coming to rest on its side.
The car came to rest further along the road. One woman sustained a fractured arm and was being treated by Paramedics when her condition deteriorated drastically. Netcare911 Paramedics stepped in and attempted a full advanced life support resuscitation but unfortunately she died at the scene.
Three other occupants of the car and seventeen people from the minibus were treated and stabilised at the scene by Netcare911 Paramedics before they were transported by ambulance to area hospitals for further medical care. The critically injured woman, who had been sitting in the front of the minibus, was heavily entrapped in the crumpled metal and had to be cut free by eThekwini Metro Firefighters using the Jaws of Life and other hydraulic rescue equipment.
Jeffrey Wicks
Netcare 911