One dies as taxi slams into bakkie

13 October 2008

A man was killed and six others were injured when a taxi crashed into a bakkie on the M1 South in Joburg.

According to metro police Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar, three employees from the Johannesburg Roads Agency were spraying weeds with poison on the freeway near the Atholl Oaklands offramp in Melrose on Sunday when a taxi loaded with passengers collided with their bakkie.

He said the lane in which the men were working was clearly marked closed.

Johannesburg Emergency Management Services spokesperson Percy Morokane said a male passenger in the taxi was killed, while the driver and another passenger sustained serious injuries.

Three maintenance workers sustained serious injuries in the incident.

"The driver of the taxi was trapped and had to be freed with the use of the jaws of life, and a male passenger was declared dead after efforts to resuscitate him failed," said Morokane.

According to Minnaar, a charge of culpable homicide is being investigated against the taxi driver.

The injured were taken to Milpark, Sunninghill and Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic hospitals.

Meanwhile, a 50-year-old man was killed in an accident at the corner of Louis Botha Avenue and Houghton Drive on Saturday.

Morokane said the man apparently lost control of his vehicle before hitting a tree.

Hydraulic equipment had to be used to free his body from the wreckage.

Also on Saturday, 13 passengers were injured, one critically, when a speeding minibus taxi overturned on Jan Smuts Avenue in Westcliff.

The injured were taken to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Helen Joseph Hospital.

• This article Mziwandile Nkosi  was originally published on page 2 of The Star on October 13, 2008