News / Local
Update: Three trapped inside car in Khami river
13 Jan 2014 at 06:28hrs | Views
THREE residents from Pumula South were stuck for over two hours in a taxi which was trapped on a flooded bridge on Saturday night along Solusi Road following the recent heavy rains.
Taxi driver Douglas Pondwa and two passengers, Melisa Ngwenya and Decent Nyathi, were rescued by members of the Bulawayo Fire Brigade after being marooned on the Khami Bridge from 10:30pm after the river overflowed. Acting Bulawayo chief fire officer Edward Mpofu confirmed the incident.
"We received a phone call at around 12:30am and we rushed to the scene thinking that the car was on fire only to discover that it had been trapped in water on the bridge," said Mpofu.
He said the victims stated that they were trapped from 10:30pm and they called their relatives who alerted the fire brigade. He said the victims indicated that their vehicle was almost swept off the bridge as the water levels kept rising amid the pounding rains.
"Because of the continuous rain, the river was flooded and we found the water at window level of the car," said Mpofu.
He urged motorists to adhere to weather forecasts warning about floods and to never cross flooded bridges.
Taxi driver Douglas Pondwa and two passengers, Melisa Ngwenya and Decent Nyathi, were rescued by members of the Bulawayo Fire Brigade after being marooned on the Khami Bridge from 10:30pm after the river overflowed. Acting Bulawayo chief fire officer Edward Mpofu confirmed the incident.
"We received a phone call at around 12:30am and we rushed to the scene thinking that the car was on fire only to discover that it had been trapped in water on the bridge," said Mpofu.
He said the victims stated that they were trapped from 10:30pm and they called their relatives who alerted the fire brigade. He said the victims indicated that their vehicle was almost swept off the bridge as the water levels kept rising amid the pounding rains.
"Because of the continuous rain, the river was flooded and we found the water at window level of the car," said Mpofu.
He urged motorists to adhere to weather forecasts warning about floods and to never cross flooded bridges.
Source - Southern Eye
