Near the railway bridge running over the Old Middelburg Road a black BMW apparently overtook a row of cars and collided with a VW Polo traveling towards Middelburg one person dead. Three other vehicles where caught in the collision as well on Sunday, December 21 .
According to eyewitnesses the Black BMW was several cars ahead of them when they saw that the driver of the BMW trying to overtake on the solid white line running underneath the bridge. He was apparently speeding as well.
“It was terrible to see what was happening,” said Rina Pearson as Basie Pearson her husband and her son stopped to help the two victims out of the Polo that had caught fire. Two of the three passengers were trapped in the wrecked BMW. Emergency Services spent two hours freeing them from the tangled wreck with the Jaws of Life. The narrow two lane road was also closed off by traffic officers.
According to Pearson the two people from the Polo were badly injured however the driver was conscious and apparently tried to phone his wife while laying on the ground. One of the three people who was traveling in the BMW died after the collision; however at the time of writing he was not yet formally identified. He died after emergency services took the critically injured patient to hospital.
The eyewitnesses had their children in the car with them. Scott Pearson assisted in putting out the fire from the Polo, and Serufcka Pearson who is only 12 years old was actually directing traffic before emergency services got to the scene. The people in the other three vehicles were apparently not seriously injured.
The South African National Roads Association (Sanral) was contacted for comment regarding the high number of collisions that occurred on the Old Middelburg Road in the passed year and this was their reply:
On Monday afternoon on December 22 Michael York-Heart, project manager of Operations and maintenance issued a comment to the WITBANK NEWS regarding safety on the Old Middelburg Road. “SANRAL is concerned about the number of incidents that have occurred on the R555. We are in the process of designing the proposed road upgrade to ensure the ease of traffic flow in the area. In the mean time we would like to urge all motorists to adhere to the speed limit and the rules of the road when travelling in the area,” he said.
