TSHAKHUMA - Four passengers of a green Nissan Sentra died instantly when their vehicle collided with a heavy-duty steel delivery truck at Tshakhuma, west of Thohoyandou, on Saturday morning. Scores of shocked villagers watched in horror as emergency staff used cutting torches to remove the bodies from the totally wrecked sedan. The driver of the heavy-duty vehicle and his assistant escaped unhurt.

Captain Mashudu Malelo of the Vhembe police said the accident happened at about 07:45 on the Punda Maria Road. “The driver of the sedan was travelling from Thohoyandou towards Makhado and tried to overtake another vehicle. He then realized that there was a heavy truck coming from the opposite direction. Both the drivers of the truck and the sedan tried to avoid each other, but their vehicles collided head on. The truck overturned before it came to a standstill on the other side of the road. All the occupants of the sedan died at the scene and the driver of the truck and his assistant were not injured. Emergency staff arrived shortly after the accident but there was nothing they could do except remove the bodies from the mangled wreck.”

Malelo said the deceased are two males and two female passengers who are staying around Thohoyandou. “The driver of the truck is 40 years old and the age of his assistant could not be established. The driver of the sedan was a 51-year-old male and his counterpart is 45 years old. One of the deceased females was 44 years old and the other one’s age could not be established”

He said a case of culpable homicide was registered at the Levubu Police and investigations are under way.