Four people died in a horror crash on the N3 near Pietermaritzburg, paramedics said.
The accident took place near Town Hill on the Durban-bound carriageway after 3pm on Wednesday.
Garrith Jamieson from ALS Paramedics said they responded to reports of a serious multi-vehicle crash.
“On arrival paramedics found carnage as they found that two trucks and a vehicle had collided before the two trucks left the road and came to rest down an embankment,” he said.
“Paramedics set up a triage system and started assessing the occupants.”
Jamieson said three people died on scene.
Rescue workers began searching for someone who was reported missing and the person was found within minutes and declared deceased on the scene.
“One person with minor injuries was treated on scene and transported to hospital.”
Jamieson said the traffic was severely backlogged and the cause of the crash was unknown.
“[The SA Police Service] SAPS and RTI were in attendance and will be investigating the cause of this horrific crash.”
According to Mi7 National Security, a construction worker is believed to be among the deceased.
On Wednesday, Transport Minister Sindi Chikunga released the statistics for the festive season road crashes.
There were 1,184 fatal road crashes in the festive season of 2023/24 compared to 1,212 fatal crashes in 2022/23.
KwaZulu-Natal had a 4% increase in road carnage.
In analysing the causes of the road crashes, the minister said human factors contributed 80.8% of the crashes, environmental factors contributed 10.4% as a result of heavy rainfall and storms, while vehicle factors contributed about 8%.
IOL News