Eight people were injured, two seriously, when a taxi, a tow-truck and a tanker were involved in an accident on Gauteng’s N1 South route today. The minibus caught fire.
Eight people were injured, two seriously, when a taxi, a tow-truck and a tanker were involved in an accident on Gauteng’s N1 South route today. The minibus caught fire. A tow-truck driver has been charged with reckless driving.
Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley told : “It seemed as if the taxi and tow-truck drivers were involved in some kind of altercation while driving.”
Midgley added the taxi passengers were “very lucky” to have been pulled from the vehicle before it caught alight.
Midgley said the taxi hit the tanker – carrying cement – after it was apparently forced to give way to a tow-truck driver speeding to the scene of another accident at around 8am.
Johannesburg Metro Police spokesman Wayne Minnaar said the tow-truck driver cut in front of the taxi from the right-hand lane.
The taxi then swerved in front of the tanker, causing both vehicles to overturn. The six occupants of the taxi were removed from the vehicle before the fire started.
The truck driver and his assistant were seriously injured after their vehicle rolled several times. The injured were taken from the scene of the accident to Lenasia Medical and Chris Hani-Baragwanath hospitals.
The tow-truck was lightly damaged and the driver stopped at the scene, the newspaper report said.
