Several families are mourning their loved ones after separate road crashes in the Western Cape and Free State have left at least nineteen people dead.

In the early hours of Monday morning, seven people were killed in a head-on collision on the N2 just outside Heidelberg.

According to the police, the crash happened at around 4 am in dense fog about 10 kilometres outside Heidelberg in the direction of Riversdale.

Two passengers from each vehicle, a Haval and a Mazda, survived the accident.

Also on Monday, 3 March, there was a fatal collision on the R61 at Rooidam, and two road incidents in Beaufort West, resulting in one death and multiple injuries.

The Western Cape MEC of Mobility Isaac Sileku has urged motorists to be vigilant and prioritise safety on the roads.

“Receiving such tragic news is always heartbreaking. These incidents highlight the critical need for intensified road safety education, as many of these tragedies were preventable. My heartfelt condolences go out to the affected families. We must all do better. We all have a shared responsibility to ensure that we all buckle up, that our vehicles are roadworthy, and that we strictly adhere to traffic laws and regulations.”

In the Free State, ten people died in a horror crash in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Police say a truck and a bus – carrying 35 people – collided just after 4 am on the N6 between Reddersburg and Smithfield.

The remaining passengers were transported to hospitals in Smithfield and Bloemfontein for medical treatment.

The Road Traffic Management Corporation dispatched a team of crash investigators to the Free State to probe the cause of the crash.

Information at this stage indicates that the bus was travelling in the direction of Smithfield while the truck with two trailers was travelling in the opposite direction. The two vehicles reportedly collided in a side swipe type crash.

The RTMC has urged all road users to exercise extreme caution when travelling in the early hours of the morning.

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