[Pietermaritzburg, KZN 28 October 2012 20:00]
10 people between the ages of 20 and 40 years old, traveling in a bakkie along Edendale road in Pietermaritzburg, have been injured after the driver is believed to have lost control of the vehicle and it rolled down an embankment.
The single cab bakkie with the canopy on the back seems to have left the road just past the BP garage on Edendale road while it was traveling in the direction of Taylors Halt. The bakkie rolled down the 10 meter embankment, coming to rest in the stream below.
Of the 10 people who had been traveling in the bakkie at the time, two woman and a man were found at the bottom of the embankment, close to where the wreckage of the bakkie lay. They were lucky to have only sustained moderate injuries, but rescuers would need to be called in to assist with bringing the patients up to the road as the embankment was steep and rocky.
The rescuers arrived, and specialised stretcher baskets were used to bring the three patients up the hill to where they could be further treated in the ambulance, as not only had they been injured, they were now also cold and wet after having been flung into the stream at the bottom of the hill.
The remaining seven people who were in the bakkie, were flung onto the road at the top of the embankment before the bakkie had descended down the hill, where the canopy had been ripped off the back of the vehicle while the vehicle overturned; they had suffered minor injuries only and were treated for their injuries on scene.
All 10 of the patients were taken to Edendale hospital for further care.
Vanessa Jackson, ER24