Seven people including a young boy have been killed in a collision between a car and two trucks on the R60 between Robertson and Ashton in the Boland in the Western Cape, last night.

The accident occurred during heavy rain on a slight hill just outside Robertson on the way to Ashton. The Corolla with four men, two women and a boy of three or four years crashed head-on with a heavy duty truck.

Another truck then crashed into the accident scene. All seven occupants of the car died on the scene. The driver of the truck that collided head-on with the car, Frederik Kotze, says he saw the car overtaking another vehicle. Kotze said he tried to make space for the oncoming car but there was no room to move. His truck then collided with the car.

The road was closed for several hours after the accident. The names of the deceased have not been released due to family members not being informed yet. A case of culpable homicide has been opened and the investigation is underway.

Man killed in N1 accident

Meanwhile, the body of a man was found trapped underneath a truck which was involved in an accident on the N1 North under the Atterbury Bridge last night, Tshwane Department of Community Safety said.

The Department reported earlier that no one was killed when a truck transporting iron rods plunged into a cement-mixing truck and three other vehicles before smashing into a crane at a roadworks construction site, early yesterday evening. 

It was while cleaning up the scene that the body was discovered underneath the truck, three hours after the accident happened, said spokesperson Console Tleane.

"We cannot say at this stage if the deceased was the driver of the truck because witnesses told us earlier that the truck driver fled the scene following the accident," he said.

Three more people were injured in the accident but only one of them was taken to hospital.

The road had to be closed following the accident as the truck burst into flames and overturned following the collision and left the crane 'without its legs'.