3 killed and 5 children injured in taxi truck crash

Three people have been killed and seven injured, mostly children, after a taxi and a truck collided near Vereeniging in the early hours of Friday.

Paramedics were called out to the scene on the R59 between Sasolburg and Vereeniging where they found a taxi rolled over on its side and a truck parked near it.

“On closer inspection, medics found one adult lying inside the taxi while several other people, including five children, were lying around the taxi. Medics assessed the patients and found that three adults had sustained fatal injuries. Nothing could be done for them, and they were declared dead,” said ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring.

Five children and two adults sustained minor to moderate injuries and were taken to Sasolburg provincial hospital.Meiring said that police were on scene investigating the cause of the crash.

In a separate incident, KwaZulu-Natal police have opened an inquest docket after the decomposing body of a teen who went missing on the South Coast was recovered on Friday.

The 17-year-old was discovered with injuries to his torso and without his right arm. According to police, he went missing on Monday after he and two friends went swimming at an unprotected beach in Umgababa.

“(He was) recovered from the shore break, near the Umgababa river mouth. The victim had suffered severe injuries to his torso and the right arm was missing,” said police.

Meanwhile, there have been no reports of recoveries at Margate Pier, also on the South Coast, and Port Durnford beach, on the North Coast, where two other people went missing at sea on Thursday and last week Tuesday, respectively.