Highway police and road workers clean up after a pile-up involving 18 cars and a truck carrying a cargo of polypropylene on the N3 Durban-bound near Hammarsdale yesterday afternoon. One person was injured in the accident. PICTURE: Chris Botha / Netcare911
Three people died and three were seriously injured in accidents on KwaZulu-Natal roads yesterday, which involved a total of 25 vehicles.
Eighteen cars and a truck with a cargo of polypropylene were in a pile-up on the N3 Durban-bound near Hammarsdale yesterday afternoon.
ER24 spokesman Derrick Banks said paramedics from Hillcrest and Pietermaritzburg arrived at the scene and found cars all over the road and the damaged truck a few metres away.
He said paramedics went from vehicle to vehicle to look for injured people.
A woman believed to be in her early forties had suspected serious neck and back injuries from the impact and was taken to hospital, Banks said.
No other injuries were reported.
The road was covered in the truck’s white cargo.
Meanwhile, a woman died and another person was seriously injured in a head-on collision in Wakesleigh Road in Bellair, Durban, at 8am yesterday.
Netcare911 spokesman Chris Botha said paramedics found the crumpled remains of an Opel Corsa and an Isuzu bakkie obstructing the road with the occupants still trapped in the wreckage.
The driver of the bakkie was killed on impact and the woman in the other vehicle was seriously injured. Botha said she was taken to hospital.
An hour earlier, a motorcyclist died when he crashed into the side of a car in Marine Drive, Shelly Beach.
Botha said Netcare911 paramedics had attempted advanced life support resuscitation, but after more than an hour the man was declared dead.
At 5.30am yesterday a man was killed and another was seriously injured when two trucks collided on the N3 south at Peacevale.
One of the trucks, an 18-wheeler, was transporting chemicals when it hit the rear of the first truck.
Botha said the driver of the rear truck died at the scene. Paramedics and the fire services found him trapped in the crumpled metal of the cab.
His passenger, who was seriously injured, was on the the embankment covered in chemicals.
The highway was closed for several hours while the scene was cleaned up.
