A bus accident on Monday left one person dead and several others seriously injured.

The accident happened along the N1 north, just before the Ingwe Hotel. It is believed that the driver of the bus, which was travelling in a northern direction, lost control on the road’s slippery surface due to bad weather conditions. The fully loaded bus veered off the road and capsized. All the passengers were taken to the Louis Trichardt Memorial Hospital for medical treatment. The name of the deceased was not known at our time of going to press.

Monday’s accident was preceded by two other serious accidents, also on the N1 north.

The first accident was reported early on Saturday morning, at the very same turn, near Ingwe Hotel. According to rescue workers on the scene, the accident was caused when a heavily loaded truck’s brakes failed. The driver apparently tried to warn the vehicles in front of him to make way, but unfortunately crashed into a family of four, driving straight in their Toyota Fortuner that was coming around the turn. The driver of the Fortuner realised too late that the truck was in trouble and crashed head-on with the truck.

The impact of the crash did not slow down the truck, and the truck with its trailer went right through the safety rails alongside the opposite side of the road and plummeted down the cliffs. The driver of the truck managed to get out of the vehicle without sustaining any serious injuries. Two of the family members in the Fortuner were seriously injured and transferred to a hospital in Pretoria. The remaining two were treated for minor injuries and later discharged from hospital.

On Sunday morning there was another accident on the N1 north, this time near the Mountain View Hotel. The drizzly weather earlier the morning was blamed for the reason a driver lost control over his truck. The driver was on his way back to Johannesburg from Zimbabwe, when he came around a turn in the road and veered over the lane heading for the oncoming traffic. His truck crashed into the side of a cliff, which ripped the cab from the trailer and set it tumbling off the mountain with the driver and his passengers still inside. The driver and his three passengers miraculously escaped with only minor injuries.