THREE people were killed and four others injured in a horror, high- speed, head-on collision at Lookout Point near Noordhoek along Marine Drive in Port Elizabeth yesterday afternoon.
Police said it was clear that one of the vehicles involved, a Citi Golf, in which three men died, was travelling at very high speed and this had played a part in the crash.
Shortly after the collision, emergency officials blocked the road while they used the jaws of life to cut the roof off the Citi Golf to free the three occupants trapped inside.
However the three men – whose identities have not yet been released – were declared dead at the scene.
The four occupants of the other vehicle, a Mazda double cab bakkie – driver Anthony Boucher, 25, Jelalo Daniels, 24, Ivano Jonaan, 24, and Rosco Rademeyer, 24 – were rushed to Livingstone Hospital. All four men were employed by a Port Elizabeth company that does installation work for MTN.
Police spokesman Captain Stanley Jarvis said it appeared the Citi Golf was approaching the Cape Recife nature reserve and the Mazda bakkie was heading toward Schoenmakerskop when the collision occurred.
"The Citi Golf appears to have been travelling at very high speed when the vehicle veered into oncoming traffic as it approached the sharp corner,” he said.
"The Golf collided head-on with the Mazda.”
Marks on the road indicated the Golf had skidded for about 10m.
"It appears that the Golf tried to swerve in an attempt to miss the bakkie before colliding head-on,” Jarvis said. "It is clear that speed was definitely a factor – the Citi Golf was moving at high speed.”
Accident response unit personnel were called to the scene to gather information.
"The scene will now be reconstructed to assist with the investigation,” Jarvis said.
Livingstone Hospital head of clinical governance Dr Aydin Vehbi said three of the four injured men were released after sustaining minor injuries while the fourth had been referred to the orthopaedic department for a check-up.
The collision comes only days after 17 people were killed over the weekend when a school bus and minibus collided on the R61 between Cradock and Graaff-Reinet. In both crashes, cases of culpable homicide are being investigated.
