[Potchefstroom, NW 23 October 2012 20:30]
A single cab bakkie with a canopy traveling on the Viljoenskroon road just outside of Potchesftroom, rolled off the road near the intersection with Govan Mbeki.
According to bystanders, the driver of the bakkie may have been trying to negotiate a bend in the road when he suddenly lost control of the vehicle and it overturned. After rolling multiple times, the bakkie came to rest on its roof down a short embankment and approximately 50 meters from the road in a field. Both driver and passenger had been ejected and were found lying outside of the vehicle, needing treatment for various and extensive injuries.
The patient paramedics suspected was the driver of the bakkie, was a man in his fourties, and their major concern was that he had sustained critical chest injuries. After stabilising the man for a short time on the scene, he was quickly loaded into the ambulance and stabilised further en route to the Provincial hospital in Potchefstroom. He was on life support by the time he had gotten to the hospital and trauma staff took over his care. The passenger that had been traveling in the vehicle was a man appearing to be in his late thirties. He too had been badly injured, but he was in a stable condition, needing treatment for a suspected head injury and other various traumatic injuries. Paramedics transported the patient to the Provincial hospital by ambulance where he would be further assessed and cared for.
There is believed to have been no other vehicle having played a part in the cause of this accident, and the actual events leading up to the accident and as to why it took place will be investigated by local authorities.
Vanessa Jackson, ER24