[imagesource: Claudine Senekal, Ladysmith Herald]

Towards the end of last year, truck drivers were faced with xenophobic attacks that became increasingly more frequent, violent, and deadly.

These events were indicative of how dangerous the job can be, and that’s before you take into account the long hours and very little sleep, topped with the responsibility of moving cargo from one point to the next without incident.

Those incidents can include reckonings with reckless drivers, or vehicles that are out of control, such as the one that caused a massive collision in Newcastle in Kwa-Zulu Natal, on Thursday, February 4.

According to The Citizen, a collision between a truck and a minibus taxi left five people dead and others critically injured.

Image: SA Trucker/ Twitter

There was speculation as to who was accountable for the crash, but recently revealed dashcam footage shows that the truck driver was not in the wrong:

Truck dashcam proves the driver for Ni-Da Transport side tipper involved in fatal crash with taxi on Memel road near Newcastle was not in the wronghttps://t.co/CjtIAUFkmJ pic.twitter.com/gD1IQZSMP3

— SA Trucker (@rsa_trucker) February 8, 2021

Image: FlyingNews/ Twitter

Image: Citizen

KwaZulu-Natal acting MEC for transport Kwazi Mshengu has confirmed the accident and said that the police were investigating a case of culpable homicide (an act which has resulted in a person’s death but is held not to amount to murder).

Looking at the state of the vehicles, it’s a miracle that anyone got out alive.

[source:citizen]