At least 10 people, including two pedestrians and three children, have been killed on Eastern Cape roads in the five days between December 23 and yesterday.
Three others drowned in various parts of the province in the same period. A boy of 12, still missing, is feared drowned.
Provincial health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo yesterday said a woman driver died on the N6 between Aliwal North and Jamestown when the white Polo she was driving overturned.
Three of the passengers she was travelling with are still fighting for their lives in hospital.
Kupelo said a head-on collision just 10km outside Grahamstown on Sunday claimed the lives of four people, including two minor children.
Kupelo said the two children and two adults died when the Cape Town-registered Toyota Avanza they were travelling in, collided with a BMW X5, killing the four Avanza occupants instantly.
Provincial transport spokeswoman Khuselwa Rantjie said yesterday that on Christmas Day on the R61, near Bizana, three people were killed when their car spun out of control and overturned. Rantjie said the Bizana accident claimed the lives of two adults and a six-month-old baby.
“Also on Christmas Day, two pedestrians were knocked down and killed by speeding vehicles in two separate accidents in the Mthatha CBD,” she said. Since the beginning of the festive season on December 1, Rantjie said, more than 78700 vehicles were stopped and checked by provincial law enforcement agencies, including traffic officers and police.
She said of those vehicles processed in various roadblocks across the province, 406 had their licence discs confiscated for various transgressions, including unroadworthiness.
She said since December 1, 66 drivers had been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, while 64 others were arrested for various offences, including possession of drugs and other items such as illegal guns and stolen livestock.
Eastern Cape acting provincial police commissioner Major-General Andre Swart yesterday said police visibility had been heightened in some provincial beaches after a number of drownings were recorded since Monday. He said on Sunday an unidentified man, about 26, drowned at Kariega Mouth in Kenton-on-Sea while swimming with a group of friends.
“The National Sea Rescue Institute and police divers were called in and they managed to retrieve the body of the drowned man, who is from Port Elizabeth. It is alleged that the man was at Kenton-on-Sea as a contract worker but his name, surname, address and next-of-kin are still not yet known.
An inquest docket has been opened,” Swart said.
On Tuesday, Swart said two women aged between 20 and 22 drowned while swimming at Qolora, near Centane.
Swart said a search party, which included police divers and a dog unit, as well as parents and friends were yesterday still out searching for a 12-year-old boy who also went missing while swimming at Qolora on Tuesday. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
10 killed in carnage on EC roads
Three others drowned in various parts of the province in the same period. A boy of 12, still missing, is feared drowned.
Provincial health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo yesterday said a woman driver died on the N6 between Aliwal North and Jamestown when the white Polo she was driving overturned.
Three of the passengers she was travelling with are still fighting for their lives in hospital.
Kupelo said a head-on collision just 10km outside Grahamstown on Sunday claimed the lives of four people, including two minor children.
Kupelo said the two children and two adults died when the Cape Town-registered Toyota Avanza they were travelling in, collided with a BMW X5, killing the four Avanza occupants instantly.
Provincial transport spokeswoman Khuselwa Rantjie said yesterday that on Christmas Day on the R61, near Bizana, three people were killed when their car spun out of control and overturned. Rantjie said the Bizana accident claimed the lives of two adults and a six-month-old baby.
“Also on Christmas Day, two pedestrians were knocked down and killed by speeding vehicles in two separate accidents in the Mthatha CBD,” she said. Since the beginning of the festive season on December 1, Rantjie said, more than 78700 vehicles were stopped and checked by provincial law enforcement agencies, including traffic officers and police.
She said of those vehicles processed in various roadblocks across the province, 406 had their licence discs confiscated for various transgressions, including unroadworthiness.
She said since December 1, 66 drivers had been arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, while 64 others were arrested for various offences, including possession of drugs and other items such as illegal guns and stolen livestock.
Eastern Cape acting provincial police commissioner Major-General Andre Swart yesterday said police visibility had been heightened in some provincial beaches after a number of drownings were recorded since Monday. He said on Sunday an unidentified man, about 26, drowned at Kariega Mouth in Kenton-on-Sea while swimming with a group of friends.
“The National Sea Rescue Institute and police divers were called in and they managed to retrieve the body of the drowned man, who is from Port Elizabeth. It is alleged that the man was at Kenton-on-Sea as a contract worker but his name, surname, address and next-of-kin are still not yet known.
An inquest docket has been opened,” Swart said.
On Tuesday, Swart said two women aged between 20 and 22 drowned while swimming at Qolora, near Centane.
Swart said a search party, which included police divers and a dog unit, as well as parents and friends were yesterday still out searching for a 12-year-old boy who also went missing while swimming at Qolora on Tuesday. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
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