Four people have died in three separate vehicle accidents in the Bay on Monday afternoon.
In the first incident a 37-year-old man died while loading goods onto a transport truck at a filling station in Buffelsfontein Road, Mount Pleasant, at about 3:30pm.
Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said the truck driver's assistant was loading stock from the filling station shop into the truck when the back door slammed shut.
“He was standing inside the back of the truck when the door slammed shut due to strong winds. As the door closed, the man fell to the ground hitting his head,” she said.
Medics declared him dead on the scene.
Naidu said an inquest docket had been opened and detectives were still tracking down the man’s family who live in Cape Town.
At about 4pm, another accident took place. The accident, between a motorbike and a pedestrian, occurred in Dijon Road, Lorraine. In that accident a 59-year-old woman died.
“The driver of the motorbike is an 18-year-old scholar from DF Malherbe High School. He was on his bike when a woman allegedly crossed the road in front of him,” Naidu said.
“The bike collided into the woman. The woman, who lives in the nearby informal settlement, died on the scene while the driver was rushed to hospital in a serious condition.”
At 6:45pm, two people were killed in a collision between a minibus taxi and a car at the Kempston Road and Neil Boss Road intersection in Ferguson.
“At this stage it is unclear what transpired. It is alleged that the minibus driver jumped a red traffic light causing the collision.
"Two people in the car died, one died inside the car and the other on the way to hospital. A third person was taken to hospital in a critical condition,” Naidu said.
“The minibus driver appears to have fled the scene after the crash.”
Naidu confirmed that all three people in the car were on their way to work. By 8:30pm, police accident scene investigators were still on all of the scene.
“Both the minibus and car have been impounded. Our experts will now reconstruct the accident scene.”
Naidu said that the next-of-kin in all the incidents were still in the process of being alerted.