Four people were killed and two others were critically injured in a three car pile-up on Voortrekker Road R55 near the Wierda Road junction in Centurion this evening.
The cause of the incident and the series of events preceding it remain uncertain and will form the subject of a South African Police Force investigation.
Common cause information suggests that two vehicles travelling in the same direction collided at a point in the roadway where two lanes merge due to road works. One vehicle then spun out-of-control into oncoming traffic and was struck by a third vehicle, which saw it push from the road and come to rest nearby.
Netcare911 Paramedics arrived at the scene to find the mangled wreckage at the roadside with six occupants, all heavily entrapped. Two men and a three-year-old boy had been killed on impact. A woman later died while still confined within the car.
Paramedics, working closely with firefighters, monitored the injured while recue technicians used the Jaws of Life and other hydraulic rescue equipment to free them.
Two critically injured men were treated and stabilised at the scene and transported by ambulance to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital.