A mother died saving her four-year-old daughter from being run over by a minibus taxi in Durban’s city centre yesterday.
ER24 spokesman Andre Visser said the taxi hit the mother, 31, at the intersection of Johannes Nkosi (Alice) and Joe Slovo (Field) Streets in the city centre yesterday afternoon.
The child had only sustained scrapes and bruises
It is believed that at about 5pm the child ran into the road and her mother made a desperate attempt to save her, but they were both hit by the taxi.
According to witnesses, the mother and her daughter were walking near the corner of the two streets when the little girl managed to break free of the mother’s grip and ran into the road.
“The mother then hurled herself into the road and saved her daughter from being struck by the passing taxi,” but the woman herself took the blow.
Visser said that ER24 paramedics arrived at the scene and found the mother lying in the road.
The woman had fatal injuries and was declared dead at the scene, he said.
The young girl was taken to Addington Hospital.
Exact details of the cause of the accident and preceding events would remain a subject for police investigation, said Visser.
