The police in North West are investigating a case of culpable homicide after five people were killed when two vehicles collided early on Monday morning.
Alpheus Koonyaditse, media liaison officer in the office of the MEC for community safety and transport management in North West, said the accident occurred between a sedan and a utility vehicle at 12.30am on the Riviera Park Bridge in Mahikeng.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that both vehicles were going towards Mahikeng CBD [central business district] from northeast to southwest direction on the R49 Road.
“It appears one of the vehicle was overtaking the other when it bumped it on the driver’s side,” said Koonyaditse.
He said three people were declared dead on the scene while two others succumbed to injuries on their way to the hospital.
“The deceased include one of the drivers. Two other people have been hospitalised with serious injuries,”Koonyaditse said.
Sello Lehari, MEC for community safety and transport management, extended his condolences to the families of the deceased and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.
Early in July, four people died in two car accidents on the N4 highway in the North West.
On July 2 at about 5.10pm, a bakkie carrying 15 passengers including a baby overturned while overtaking near Zeerust in North West.
In another accident on July 1 at about 7pm, a head-on collision outside Dinokana killed three people.
Meanwhile, media reports say six friends who were driving from a function on Saturday night were killed in an accident on the R74 Kranskop Road in KwaZulu-Natal.
The deceased are aged between 22 and 41 years.
According to a police report, the accident happened before midnight and the scene was cleared at 4.45am the next day.
The cause of the accident is not known yet but the authorities are investigating.
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