Bus Overturns In Cape Town; Kills 3, Injures 21 Amid Severe Storms

Three people died and 21 others got injured after a bus overturned on Jakes Gerwel Drive, also known as M7 road, that connects Acacia Park with Rocklands on the False Bay Coast. The accident took place amid severe weather causing heavy rainfall and excessive flooding.

Traffic South Africa's official X handle, formerly known as Twitter, shared the incident's video on Monday, showing how the Golden Arrow Bus Service's vehicle flipped on the road.

The accident happened on Monday morning around 8:45 a.m. John Dammert, who serves as Golden Arrow Bus Services' HR and corporate affairs executive, admitted that the driver lost control of the bus amid heavy storms in the province, as per News24.

He shared that all injured passengers were rushed to Groote Schuur, Tygerberg, and Mitchells Plain hospitals.

Considering the weather in Cape Town, the provincial Mobility Department's spokesperson Jandre Bakker said that the N-2 at Botriver has suffered severe damage and is impassable.

"Road users traveling on the N-2 in the direction of Cape Town are diverted at Swellendam to the R-62 Ashton and will continue to the N-1 via the Huguenot Tunnel," he disclosed, SABC News reported.

Bakker urged South Africans that if they are "traveling on the N2 out of Cape Town, please note that Clarence Drive is closed" and they won't be able to pass Grabouw.

Hence, everyone is supposed to use the N1 Huguenot tunnel and then travel via Worcester to Ashton, Swellendam, and back onto the N2. "We are therefore expecting significantly higher traffic volumes on the N1, R62, and R60," he added.

Beverley van Reenen, who is a member of the Mayoral Committee for Energy, noted the surge in electricity-related service requests as there are outages in Philippi, Gugulethu, Eastridge, Steenberg, Wetton, Bellville, Plattekloof, Green Point, Pinati Estate.

"Storm-related damage often leads to area outages, and restoration time is unfortunately impacted due to the damaged infrastructure and stormy weather," Reenen added.

An X user shared a video showing how badly the weather is impacting people commuting on the road:

Another X user shared a video showing the floods in the Western Cape.

"This is the flooding in the Strand, Western Cape. Even my garden in Cape Town is flooded, the user wrote. "The climate crisis is sparing no one. If we don't act now, we will have to contend with a worse situation next year. And who knows what is going to happen after that."