Overturned truck causes major gridlock out of Cape Town

Creation date: 14 August 2009

Motorists leaving Cape Town’s city centre on Friday afternoon faced massive delays on all routes out of the city, after a truck carrying heavy bales of grain overturned on the N1.

The outgoing lane of the major highway towards Paarl was closed while emergency teams attended to the accident.

The accident happened at about 10:30 on Friday morning, when two trucks collided and overturned on the N1 outgoing just after Koeberg Interchange, at a new deviation in the road. 

No one was injured, but people leaving their offices early on Friday were unlikely to find alternative routes home.

Other roads 'choc-a-block'

The N2, Eastern Boulevard, M3 and other main roads were “choc-a-block”, City traffic spokesperson Merle Lourens told News24.

She said the N1 was likely to be cleared and opened at about 15:00, but the "damage had already been done".

Teams were using forklifts, frontend loaders and mechanical sweepers to clear the highway.

"It takes about 15 minutes to pick up one bale of grain and load it back on to another truck - that’s how heavy it is," said Lourens.

- News24

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