At approximately 23h09 on Saturday night 16 May 2009, Netcare 911 paramedics responded to reports of a very serious collision on London road in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg.
Upon arrival, paramedics found that a tanker truck carry two empty Lucerne tanks had been involved in a head-on collision with a Golf on the bridge over the Jukskei river. The truck driver alleged that the Golf had been on the wrong side of the road and following the impact, the truck driver lost control of the vehicle and it crossed over the middle island before it jacked-knifed and crashed into the embankment on the other side of the road. As a result of the massive impact, the entire engine section was ripped out of the car and lay scattered over the road.
Paramedics attended to a total of five people at the scene: all of the occupants were out of the Golf and it was not clear who was driving. An adult male sustained severe head injuries and appears to have died on impact, a second adult male had also sustained severe head injuries and was in a critical condition. Two females were also injured, one had serious injuries while the other had minor injuries. The two females were transported by ambulances to the Edenvale hospital.
Netcare 911 attended to the critically injured male and the Netcare 911 helicopter was called to the scene. The victim was placed onto emergency life support by the medical team at the scene before being airlifted to the Charlotte Maxeke hospital. The fifth victim, the driver of the truck, sustained only minor injuries and remained at the scene and gave a statement to the police.
The incident resulted in the closure of London road in both directions for several hours. A large specialist recovery vehicle was called to the scene to remove the truck which appeared to be wedged between the concrete middle island and the embankment.
This incident was attended to by Netcare 911, provincial fire and ambulance service, SAPS and the Metro Polices specialist Accident Investigation Unit.
Nick Dollman
mobilemedia
Netcare 911