Taxi crash survivors relive their horror morning

None of them expected their commute to end with either one of them having to crawl out the shattered windows of their taxi on the N4 highway.

The weekend of May 3, saw two taxi accidents, a total of three fatalities, in a scene sharing striking similarities of both vehicles having their wheels bust while transporting eMalahleni locals.

The day started off as a normal day for 27-year-old nurse Koketso Mokoena.

Making her way to Beatty Clinic in the CBD, “I got onto a taxi at extension 11 taxi rank going to work as usual,” she told WITBANK NEWS.

“I heard conversation, the driver being told that the front left wheel of the car was not okay. I don’t know what they were seeing, but the driver dismissed them and said he will check it later,” she said.

They left the taxi rank and went about their usual route making use of the N4 highway to connect to eMalahleni CBD.

“As we approached those big houses by Ninja Park, we all heard a loud bang. That scared me. Quickly after the driver applied the brakes and that is when he lost control of the taxi. It turned and faced the opposite direction. It started rolling and moved onto the other side of the highway to cars which were going in the opposite direction.”

Mokoena explains that a feeling of hopelessness came over her as the accident happened,

“We were all scared sitting and watching everything happen and not being able to do anything about it.”

To their relief the taxi finally came to a stop and they could try to make their way out of the vehicle.

“I was disorientated when we stopped, those of us who could started climbing out the windows of the taxi and I remember seeing a lot of blood by the passenger door when I got out.”

The bigger realisation came when Mokoena was out of the taxi,

“that is when I saw the bodies which were scattered around because some passengers were flung out while the taxi was rolling.”

Mokoena attributed her survival to divinity and grace from God.

“In that moment when I saw what happened and could have happened to me, I better understood the saying that God’s grace is undeserved. This month is a prayer month at my church so I just thanked God for his grace and mercy upon my life.”

Mokoena sustained a foot and knee injury, but is back at home to her two kids of ages nine and two-years-old and her husband.

On Saturday May 4, Mokoena received a new ward mate who was also involved in a taxi accident on the N4 while travelling to Vosman.

Thembisile Mpinga who sustained injuries to her hands, face and shoulder shared how she boarded a taxi which also busted a wheel while driving them to their destination.

“I got onto a taxi in down town, it was those old ones, not the Quantums. Getting into the taxi there was nothing unusual that I noticed and even on the highway the driver wasn’t speeding at all,” she said.

Mpinga who sat right over the wheel that busted in the front passenger seat opposite the driver continued and described a bust which was sudden and unexpected,

“we were passing the Ferrobank exit bridge as the tyre busted, after the driver really tried to keep the taxi on the road so we didn’t fall over the bridge. He managed but then the taxi overturned and that’s how I got injured.”

The taxi association told WITBANK NEWS that an internal investigation into both accidents was opened.

Chairman for the Local Taxi Association, Mr Solly Vilane confirmed that the internal investigation that they launched had been concluded, but could not comment on the contents of the report just yet.