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The washed away vehicle in Gordon/Stapleton Road incident.
A woman in her fifties has died after her vehicle was swept off a bridge during heavy overnight rains in the eThekwini Municipality.
The incident occurred on Sarnia Road in Pinetown, west of Durban. The vehicle was washed away by floodwaters during the torrential downpours.
Search and rescue operations were halted last night due to unsafe conditions but resumed early this morning.
Advanced Life Support paramedics’ spokesperson Garrith Jamieson confirmed the recovery of the vehicle and the victim.
“Around 2 to 3 this morning, the vehicle was located just off Gordon Road. The rescuers and the fire department were able to recover the vehicle. Unfortunately, there was a single occupant in this vehicle, a female believed to be in her 50s, who had sustained fatal injuries and was declared deceased by paramedics on the scene.”
Jamieson says that the damage to the vehicle indicated the intensity of the floodwaters.
“We are currently on the scene as they are recovering the wreckage at the moment the damage to that vehicle has been torn apart as well as the river which has subsided substantially but you can actually see how high this river went during the course of the storm last night,” adds Jamieson.
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