Three people died after a motorist lost control of his vehicle in heavy rain in on the R300 in Cape Town.
|||Cape Town - Three people died after a motorist lost control of his vehicle in heavy rain in the city just after midnight.
Two passengers died on impact early this morning and the seriously injured driver died later in hospital after a Toyota Hilux bakkie hit a concrete barrier on the R300 near the Van Riebeeck Road off-ramp, said Cape Town traffic spokeswoman Merle Louwrens.
It is believed the accident happened during a heavy downpour.
Cape Town residents have also been warned to wrap up warmly, because it is going to be very cold tonight.
Temperatures are going to drop well below the double figures after today’s cold front moves over Cape Town, satellite weather expert Jean-Pierre Arabonis has warned.
The first real winter system to hit Cape Town last night brought heavy rain and wind that blew down electricity lines in Brooklyn and Plumstead, but the city escaped largely unscathed, said disaster risk management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes.
There were no reports of localised flooding overnight, but the department was ready for action should today’s front bring more than normal rain, he said.
The broken power lines left small areas of Plumstead and Brooklyn in the dark last night and technicians were working hard at fixing them this morning, he said.
Arabonis predicted heavy rain for this afternoon due to isolated clouds following behind the front.
“This type of cloud could bring heavy rain in isolated places such as Muizenberg and Newlands, while a place like Fish Hoek may just get normal rain,” he said.
“But, tonight it is going to get really cold for the first time this winter.
“We can expect temperatures to drop to 6°C or even 5°C overnight.”
On Tuesday, Solomons-Johannes said the city was preparing to react to flooding, as the water table on the Cape Flats was already high from earlier rains.
Cape Argus