Victims of M41 accident say they are grateful to be alive
Durban - Victims of the multiple-vehicle crash that occurred on the M41 on Monday morning say that they are grateful for having survived the accident.
According to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Community Safety and Liaison, a total of 49 vehicles were involved and multiple injuries were reported.
It was suspected that the tipper-truck carrying coal experienced brake failure, lost control and ploughed into multiple-vehicles, before veering off the road and overturning a few kilometres away from the scene.
For Ryan Austin Basdew, 23, surviving the near-death experience was nothing short of a miracle. Basdew, a Phoenix resident who works in Greyville was heading to work alone that morning and had been driving through traffic as usual.
“Traffic always builds up on the M41 so I was just in the midst of it. I realised something was wrong when I saw people trying to manoeuvre into the right lane, which I was in.
They reacted quickly, and I also caught glimpses of people in their vehicles moving away from the passenger side, only to then hear the crashes behind me,” he said. Basdew recalled the split second in which he turned his head to his left and saw the truck “speed” through, crashing into every vehicle in its path.
“Those vehicles then collided with the ones on the lane I was on, including my vehicle, a black Chevrolet. My car was hit on the passenger side of the door, smashing it and busting the window. I had only seen the truck when it passed by me because the speed was too great for me to see as much as I should have.
The truck sped by so fast that it must’ve been about four seconds in total in which I saw the truck,” said Basdew. He then prepared for the worst. Basdew said that he did not feel much pain at first and that it all kicked in later in the day and the next. He just had whiplash, pain in his head, shoulders, neck, back, and a little in his legs.
Basdew said that he was grateful that everyone involved in the accident had survived, as some of the crashes looked extremely horrific and would have made anyone think of the worst outcome. Ajay Budhram, 48, whose Toyota Fortuner was the second vehicle to be struck by the truck is also grateful to be alive.
“The truck came out of nowhere and began charging down and rampaged into the vehicles. It hit the one before me, then came to mine, before ploughing down and started to knock all the other vehicles at the bottom,” he said.
Budhram was on his way to a staff party in Durban central, travelling alone. The left-hand rear and front of his car got damaged. Budhram said that he was in the process of claiming for insurance. He said that he hoped justice would be served.
“I hope that this case does not get swept under the carpet because having a vehicle like that on the road is like waiting for havoc to occur and let’s hope that the owners of the vehicle take liability for the fact that they have an unroadworthy vehicle. Normally it is so often that the drivers bear the brunt, but owners should also take responsibility,” he said. Meanwhile, the driver of the truck will remain in custody in Westville prison, until his bail application on Wednesday.
Sithulile Siyabonga Nhlanhlayethu Zulu, 22, made his first appearance in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on charges of reckless and negligent driving and failure to comply with the duties of a driver following an accident.
Dressed in black trousers, an olive jacket, stone T-shirt and blue flip-flops, the suspect appeared to be distraught. During the court proceedings, he spent much of his time face down and staring into space, listening attentively to the presiding officer.
The matter was adjourned to verify the address given and for bail profiling. The state said that it would be opposing his bail application. Zulu handed himself to the Durban North police on Monday night. He had initially fled the scene.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE