[Potchefstroom 09 September 2011 09:00]
Shortly before 9 am this morning, a Hyundai bakkie transporting 14 people rolled on the Klipdrift Road approximately 15 kilometers outside of Potchefstroom in the direction of Johannesburg.
As ER24 paramedics arrived at the scene, the local emergency services had already started assessing the 14 patients. The Advanced Life Support paramedic was immediately alerted to a patient that had been found some way away from the wreck, and he had sustained critical injuries. The man would need immediate life saving treatment and he was rapidly taken per ambulance to the Potchefstroom Provincial Hospital while the paramedic treated his injuries.
The other 13 patients, one of whom was a woman and the rest men, were found seated on the grass around the bakkie which was still on its roof. They had allegedly been flung from the bakkie as it had rolled, and they had been sitting on the open load bed at the back of the vehicle. The were treated for minor to moderate injuries and were all taken per ambulance to the Potchefstroom Provincial Hospital.
The cause of the accident is not clear, and no other vehicles were involved in the accident. The police will investigate.
Vanessa Jackson, ER24