Durban - The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in KwaZulu-Natal has called on taxi owners to assume more responsibility on who drives their vehicles, this after a taxi crash in Pietermaritzburg left five people dead on Sunday morning.
The taxi, which was travelling from Imbali township going to the CBD, crashed in Moses Mabhida Road near aluminium factory Hulamin.
The KwaZulu-Natal Transport department said in a statement that the driver of the minibus taxi lost control of the vehicle on M70, instantly killing five people. Other occupants sustained injuries and were taken to nearby hospitals.
“Upon examination, it was discovered that the minibus driver was under the influence of alcohol and has been detained. He is expected to face charges of culpable homicide, negligent drinking and driving under influence of alcohol,” the department said.
Santaco KZN office manager Sifiso Shangase said it was heartbreaking accident.
“Firstly, we pass our condolences to the families of the commuters that died and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” said Shangase.
He raised questions about the driver’s state, noting that the vehicle was fairly new.
“Although we do not have anything tangible at the moment, there are certain observations to be made from the accident. When one looks at the stretch of the road there is just nothing that makes it difficult to drive, and given the look of the vehicle the conclusion is that there was something wrong with the driver,” Shangase told “The Mercury”.
The Santaco office manager appealed to taxi owners to be extra careful with their vehicles and drivers in order to avoid such accidents in future.
“Owners should be very careful because sometimes normal drivers pass the responsibility of driving on Sunday to their conductors or other individuals because they are nursing hangovers after a night of drinking on Saturday,” Shangase said.
He also decried the attitude of taxi drivers from Pietermaritzburg, saying there was little regard for traffic lights and called on Msunduzi Municipality to deploy traffic officers at intersections in order to avoid accidents.
“Our experience is that whether coming from Edendale or Imbali there is very little respect for traffic lights by drivers and this is giving the industry a bad reputation. So we hope that the municipality can deploy traffic officers at traffic lights as part of law enforcement, ” Shangase said.
He also appealed to commuters to be more vigilant and to avoid getting into vehicles if the drivers are in a questionable state.