Tragedy strikes in Tulbagh as family perishes after truck loses its load

CAPE TOWN - It's understood that a nine-month-old baby has died after a freak accident killed his eight-year-old sister, his mother and his grandmother in Tulbagh.

The Rural and Farmworkers Development Organisation's Billy Claasen said that the infant died in hospital overnight but police have not yet confirmed this.

The tragedy occurred along Drostdy Road on Monday, when a truck, transporting plums, lost its freight at high speed on a bend.

The crates of fruit apparently hit the victims.

"Reports suggest that the bins were not properly secured to the truck. The driver of the truck has been arrested by Tulbagh police. This is so unfair, it seems that farmworkers' lives have no value in South Africa. Although this is an accident, it's an accident that could have been avoided, if the bins were properly secured on the truck."

The driver faces charges of culpable homicide.