Quick thinking saves lives

By: Photo: Tanja Bause

An accident on Windhoek’s Western Bypass road in yesterday’s morning traffic between a suspected illegal minibus taxi and a bakkie transporting workers left 15 people injured. Both vehicles were travelling towards Unam when the taxi made a U-turn on the highway in front of the bakkie.

The bakkie hit the bus, overturned once and landed back on its wheels. There were ten men on the back of the bakkie who were flung off. There were 15 people in the bakkie, all of whom were injured except the driver. In the bus were eight people, of whom one was injured. Most of the injured sustained head injuries. Martha Pietersen, a former nurse, was travelling in the bus and after it came to a halt she jumped out and started helping the injured.  Willem Kotze, the bakkie driver, said: “I saw the taxi and had two choices – I could turn left and go down the embankment or I could turn right into the oncoming morning traffic and cause a bigger accident.” In the photo above paramedics are busy attending to the injured.

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