Flashbacks haunt driver who saw Boksburg tanker explode

A motorist says she is still reliving the experience of witnessing a tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas exploding after becoming wedged under a low-lying bridge in Boksburg on Christmas Eve.

E-hailing driver Khomotjo Sarafina Ntlhane was in the area to drop off a client at the Tambo Memorial Hospital. The tanker explosion was about 100m from the hospital. At least 18 people were killed and scores injured.

“I'm still traumatised by the entire thing. I'm looking at all the losses that everyone suffered. It's bad, the lives lost, properties and belongings. It's a lot,” she told TimesLIVE outside the Boksburg magistrate's court, where the driver of the truck had been expected to appear. The case could not be brought as police are still investigating.

“A small banging sound takes me back to that explosion. Hearing all the screams and noise,” she said.

Ntlhane was among the first people on the scene after the crash.

“When the fire started, the driver started being weak and we called an ambulance and he was transported to the hospital. The people from his company and firefighters arrived.”

The initial fire seemed to have been extinguished by the firefighters but this was followed by explosions, she said. “The first explosion was lighter, but the second and third ones were very loud.”

Ntlhane watched, horrified, as some of the firefighters sustained burn wounds.

“Today is the first time I've left my home after what happened. I saw when the firefighters were burning. I am not sure that I will be able to travel on that same route because of what happened.”

She had also watched helplessly as her vehicle was destroyed.

“It was heartbreaking to watch because there was nothing we could do.”

Her vehicle was uninsured. 

TimesLIVE

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