Emergency medical services in the Cape peninsula had their hands full this morning as multiple motor vehicle collisions were reported around Cape Town due to rainy weather.
ER24 received call outs to 14 collisions between 07:30 and 12:00 this morning. One scenario had rescue workers attend to 2 serious collisions which had occurred within 5 minutes of each other and in a 5 kilometre radius. The collisions occurred in the Brackenfell , Kuilsriver suburbs.
The first collision occurred at the corners of Bottelary Road and Brackenfell Boulevard. A large refrigerated truck had collided into the side of a VW Polo at some speed. The collision was severe as the Polo had come to a stop in the veld, 15 meters away from where the initial collision occurred.
The right side of the Polo had sustained a severe amount of damage as the entire driver’s side was crumbled. The only occupant, a female believed to be aged in her thirties, sustained various injuries and needed to be extricated from the wreck with the use of specialised hydraulic rescue equipment.
The local fire and rescue services had extricated the woman from the vehicle, before she received on-scene treatment by another ambulance service.
A few kilometres away paramedics attended to a collision on the corners of La Belle and Strand rd. A minibus taxi had collided into the side of a passenger vehicle at the intersection, injuring 2 occupants in the passenger vehicle.
The patents received on-scene treatment for injuries ranging from suspected back and neck injuries to scrapes and bruises before being transported to a nearby medical facility. The minibus taxi came to a standstill a few hundred meters down road and was being investigated by local law enforcement authorities.
ER24 would like to advise road users to take extra precautions whilst driving in rainy conditions and to maintain a safe following distance whilst utilising the vehicles head lights.
Andre Visser, ER24