Three people, including two emergency services staff members who were on their way to attend an accident scene, died a horrible death when the vehicles they were travelling in were crushed by a bus.

The accident comes hardly a week after what was seen as a quiet Easter weekend in terms of road accidents, compared to the last year’s statistics. The accident, which involved a red Golf, a police vehicle from Thohoyandou, a bus and an emergency services vehicle, happened on the main road between Tshifulanani and Thohoyandou, next to the crossing to Vuwani on Saturday evening.

Police information states that a speeding bus, which was travelling from the east, tried to overtake a Golf, which was travelling in the same direction, but hit it instead, killing the driver instantly. The bus also hit an SAPS vehicle, belonging to the Thohoyandou police, which was travelling from east to west, but the driver was lucky as he did not sustain any injuries.

The bus collided head on with an ambulance, which was allegedly rushing to assist at an accident scene at Ha-Mutsha, killing two officers, a male driver and a male crew member, and critically injuring a female ambulance assistant. The bus driver was also seriously injured and he, together with the female ambulance assistant, was transferred to the provincial hospital in Polokwane.

The scene was a war zone, with mangled scraps of metal of what used to be cars, which made people conclude that a person could not have come out of the cars alive.

Sources claim the bus was transporting supporters of the ANC to a rally in Polokwane, but had already offloaded the supporters.

After news of the deaths broke, the emergency services in Vhembe were plunged into deep mourning. They arrived at the scene in their numbers, with grief written all over their faces, and struggled for hours to free one of their dead colleagues, who was trapped in the mangled wreckage of the ambulance. Two small tow trucks tried in vain to free the mangled wreck of the ambulance from the bus. A big towing vehicle was summoned and took only a few minutes to separate the two vehicles; the second body was then retrieved.

Mr David Pennison, a colleague of the EMS members, who also arrived at the scene, was seen shaking his head after looking at the bodies. “This is a hard time for us all. We have lost two valuable members of our staff. Life will not be the same again without them,” he said. He said incidents of this nature traumatized them, but they had to carry on with their work of saving people as his colleagues were doing.

A young woman, who stayed not far from the accident scene, arrived like any other bystander, only to discover that one of the cars involved belonged to her husband. “Where is he? Where is he?” was all she could utter after seeing the red Golf belonging to her husband. He was one of those killed in the accident. She had to be taken away by friends of the dead man as she was crying hysterically.

The weekend was characterized by several fatal accidents that happened throughout Vhembe.

The dead EMS personnel were identified as Mr Humbulani Mahamba of Thohoyandou and Sidwell Masia of Vuwani, while the third victim, the driver of the golf, was identified as Mr Azwitamisi Mulovhedzi of Tshifulanani-Tshishushuru.

Inspector Elijah Malatjie, spokesperson of the Vuwani police, confirmed the accident and attributed the accident to speeding. “This is one of the worst accidents to have happened in our area and we would like to convey our condolences to the families that have lost their loved ones,” he said. “We are again calling on all road users practice cautiousness and to obey all road rules, and more specifically to adhere to the speed limit, so that they arrive alive at their destination,” he said. Malatjie said they had opened a culpable homicide and driving under the influence of liquor case against the bus driver.