Between thirty and fourty vehicles piled into each other on the N12, approximately four kilometres outside of Witbank, near the Merrydale bridge. It was a chaotic mixture of cars, trucks, taxis and light duty vehicles. ER24 paramedics said that the four kilometre journey responding to the scene took almost twenty minutes as they could not travel faster than twenty kilometres per hour due to the heavy mist that had settled in the area.
Most of the vehicles seemed to have only been slightly damaged, while there were approximately five cars that still had people trapped inside the mangled metal waiting to be cut out of the wrecks. Around fifty people were injured in the collision and were transported to various surrounding hospitals via ambulance for treatment. Injuries ranged from minor bruises and shock to broken bones, head injuries and internal injuries. All patients were stabilised on scene before being loaded and transported. Fortunately there were no reports of fatalities in the accident.
Paramedics on the scene explained that all the ambulances from Witbank, some from Middelburg and even those based at surrounding mines were called in to assist. There was an estimated twenty five ambulances involved, this is excluding the Fire and Rescue vehicles, Police, Traffic Control and other essential service vehicles.
Bystanders that were uninjured, or had stopped to spectate, were issued with gloves and asked to help with the picking up or holding of equipment while paramedics were treating the patients.
It seems that the road remained closed in both directions for some time for clean up activities.
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