A burning fuel tanker near Grabouw after a car collided with it.
PHOTO: Twitter via @TrafficSA
- Two people died after a car collided with a petrol tanker on Houwhoek
Pass near Grabouw in the Western Cape. - It is understood the female passenger in the car died on impact.
- Paramedics said eyewitnesses told them they saw the driver of the car
then run into the flames of the burning tanker.
Two people have died in a gruesome tragedy on Houwhoek Pass near Grabouw
in the Western Cape after a car collided with a petrol tanker on Saturday.
In a video of the accident posted on Facebook, the voice of the unnamed
driver of the truck can be heard explaining what happened.
He said a car carrying two occupants swerved right into the direction of
his truck as he travelled down the road. The two vehicles then collided.
The video then shows the driver of the car, which had gone off the road,
climb out of the vehicle, run towards the tanker, which was on fire, and lie
down in the flames.
Reinard Geldenhuys, manager of Protection Services in the Overberg
District Municipality, confirmed to News24: “We received notice of an
incident on the N2 highway near the Houwhoek Hotel turnoff, on the west side of
Houwhoek Pass.
“Upon arrival, we found a car, which had seemingly had a head-on
collision with a truck, which landed on the roadside.
“The truck was burning, and a body was found lying next to the
truck.
“Upon investigation, including eyewitness accounts from people at
the scene and the truck driver, it appears the man had walked deliberately into
the burning fuel, next to and beneath the truck.”
Gutted fuel tanker on the N2 near Grabouw after the fire was extinguished.
Geldenhuys said they had initially been concerned that the presence of a
child seat in the vehicle had suggested a child may have been flung out as the
car crashed. But, he said, an extensive search had ruled this out.
News24 understands the female passenger who was travelling in the car
died on impact.
The Western Cape police said in a statement that the bodies of two
unknown people were later found after the fire was extinguished.
“A death inquest and culpable homicide has been opened for
investigation after an accident that occurred yesterday on the N2,
Grabouw,” Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana said.
