Six people have sustained critical injuries while another eight have sustained serious injuries after the vehicle they were travelling in overturned on the N3 south bound in the vicinity of the Shell Ultra City in Escourt this afternoon.
Emergency personnel arrived on the scene and found a taxi that had left the road, while the occupants were found strewn across the freeway. Paramedics worked together and started stabilising the patients by means of advanced life support intervention. Two critical and four serious patients were transported to a hospital in Ladysmith for further medical care.
Four critical patients of which two had to be intubated on scene were transported by road to Pietermaritzburg Medi-Clinic where trauma doctors and staff were waiting to take over treatment. The other four serious patients were transported to various hospitals in Pietermaritzburg for treatment.
Unfortunately one of the critical patients that the paramedics had transported passed away a few hours later in hospital due to the fatal injuries that she had sustained in the accident.
It is believed the fourteen patients were Air Force employees and were travelling from the air force base in Bloemfontein and were heading to Durban for work. It is believed that the taxi may have had mechanical problems, causing the driver to lose control and overturn. The accident caused the occupants to be ejected from the vehicle before the vehicle went down the embankment.
Derrick Banks
ER24
