A woman has died in hospital after spending the night trapped in a van on a road blocked by unusually heavy snowfall in eastern South Africa from Friday, local authorities reported today, quoted by France Press.
Vehicle traffic remained blocked for a distance of about 30 km, especially on the N3 road, one of the country's main arteries that connects Johannesburg to the east coast city of Durban, the company that manages the road said this morning.
A 39-year-old woman died of hypothermia in hospital yesterday after spending Friday night trapped on the road with other passengers in a taxi van, Roland Robertson, head of the local emergency medical service, told AFP.< /p>
The passengers were stranded near the town of Moyplass, about 430 km from Johannesburg. “They stayed in the cold all night, without blankets, without anything. They weren't prepared for it,” said Robertson.
Rescue operations for passengers in distress continued in very difficult conditions today, particularly in the area of the Van Rennen Pass in the Drakensberg Mountains, about 330 kilometers southeast of Johannesburg, the company that manages the N3 road said.