By Sonica Naudé-Steyn

An accident on Friday afternoon on the N2 on one of the bends near Beestekraal caused major traffic delays due to a diesel spillage, leading to one impatient motorist causing a secondary accident after passing a number of vehicles and colliding with and RTI vehicle on the scene.
According to eyewitnesses, a minibus taxi with a trailer hit a pedestrian on the bend, lost control of the vehicle and collided with two separate trucks from oncoming traffic at around 15h00. This collision caused a rupture to one of the truck’s fuel tanks, leading to major diesel spillage on the road. The pedestrian was flung over the guard rails and died on scene while a number of passengers from the minibus taxi were injured with the jaws of life being used to extract the driver, who suffered severe injuries.
Authorities closed the road for several hours to clear the scene while spillage specialists were called in to clear the diesel off the road. Traffic was diverted however the only available diversion was muddy and almost impassable to most vehicles. Some motorists were stuck for hours during the mop up operations. One lane was later opened to traffic with a stop and go implemented.
According to authorities on scene, a few hours into the clearing operations, a motorist in a white vehicle decided to overtake the long queue of vehicles in the left emergency lane, colliding with a RTI vehicle stationed at the scene. The driver was found to be intoxicated and arrested. No serious injuries were reported from the secondary accident. The road was cleared and opened at around 21h30.