WATCH | Video of deadly crash shows truck jumped red light before hitting minibus

The footage, which may be from a closed circuit TV camera, was forwarded to the Dispatch.

No one has been arrested yet but police said a case of culpable homicide has been opened.

The Iveco Sprinter was ferrying a group of 20 Port Elizabeth street hawkers from Durban when the tipper truck crashed into it at the intersection of Sutherland Street.

Eastern Cape police spokesperson Colonel Sibongile Soci said police were still establishing the authenticity of the video and tracing its origin.

Soci said on Thursday: “SAPS has noted the video in circulation. The origin and authenticity of the video is being looked at and will form part of the investigation.

“SAPS can, however, confirm that a case of culpable homicide is under investigation. No arrests have been made yet.”

The fatal crash in the early hours of Wednesday left five people dead and 15  with injuries.

Nine of the 15 survivors have since been cleared to go home.

In the video, the tipper truck appears to speed through the intersection despite the traffic lights being red as the minibus approaches from the left.

It then connects with the front section of the minibus, which is towing a trailer.

Both vehicles then end up on the opposite side of the intersection.

Department of health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said: “We discharged nine patients, while four of the patients were transferred to Bedford Hospital with fractured bones.

“One was transferred to Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital with a head injury. “The driver of the taxi was discharged on Thursday.”

Kupelo said the driver of the truck had not required treatment in hospital.

Border Alliance Taxi Association member and owner of the minibus Ayanda Ntando said he had sent a second taxi to fetch the nine survivors.

Ntando said: “We also collected the load belonging to the hawkers and we are taking it to Port Elizabeth.”

Ntando said he had a contract with the street hawkers in terms of which he took them to Durban so they could buy stock every month.

The accident took place nine days after four people were killed when a minibus taxi and a sedan collided on the N2 in East London. Both drivers were among survivors.

Transport department spokesperson Unathi Binqose said based on the video footage of the Mthatha and the East London accidents “you can conclude that driver behaviour was the cause of both fatal crashes.

“This is very disturbing. In both these accidents and others that have taken place around the province, our investigations have revealed that the cause is not conditions of the road or vehicles themselves, but the issue of driver behaviour.

“It’s difficult to police the behaviour of drivers because a traffic officer will not be with the driver,” he said.

“We are experiencing quite a lot of senseless killing of our people on our roads and we need to see an end to that.”

Twenty-eight people have died on Eastern Cape roads since the start of September.