On Friday morning, a Nissan UD truck that was hauling a side tipper interlink when it crashed with a Mercedes Benz vehicle on the R81 highway near Mooketsi in Limpopo. According to reports, the accident resulted in the deaths of two persons.
On social media platforms, video footage of the collision has emerged, demonstrating in detail how the event took place.
In the footage that lasts about thirty seconds, a Mercedes Benz can be seen following a white bakkie as it travels down a side road before joining the R81.
A red articulated lorry drives up to the junction on the right hand side of the Mercedes Benz and makes a left turn into the narrow lane that the automobile is approaching from.
At the same moment, the Mercedes-Benz drives through the junction without stopping, despite the fact that there is a sign indicating that it must do so.
It is likely that the driver does this because he notices a cover on the red truck that’s also turning, but he misses to see a Nissan UD truck that is pulling a side tipper interlink following the red truck in close proximity.
The driver of the Mercedes Benz attempts to avoid colliding with the side tipper truck upon noticing it, but it is already too late for him to do so. The side-tipper truck collides with the Mercedes Benz near the driver’s door, sending the vehicle off to the side of the road as it continues to go in the same direction.
Reports on social media indicate that the driver of the Mercedes Benz and one of its passengers both passed away at the site of the accident, while another passenger received extremely severe injuries.
When SA Trucker analysed the footage, they noted that the accident occurred in the lane that was moving in the other direction that the side tipper truck was headed. This is shown in the screengrab that can be seen below.
The short amount of time that passed between the arrival of the red truck and that of the side tipper truck provides evidence that the latter vehicle was tailgating too closely. The video demonstrates that the turning truck was overtaken by the side-tipper vehicle, which led to the collision by being one of the contributing factors.
The circumstances would have been quite different if the side tipper truck had been driving in the right lane. Either the two cars would have not collided with each other at all, or the collision would have been quite small.