A total of 289 road accidents were recorded by Netcare 911 over a 72 hour period countrywide, it said on Monday.

Spokesperson Nick Dollman said 258 of these were vehicle collisions while 31 involved pedestrians.

"These numbers can probably be attributed to the fact that many motorists were returning home before the majority of schools re-open," he said.

In Gauteng, Netcare 911 paramedics responded to 120 accidents, while those in KwaZulu-Natal handled 53 accidents.

The Western and Eastern Cape provinces had 40 recorded accidents, while the Free State had 25 and Limpopo 19, Dollman said.

Netcare paramedics on Friday responded to a collision that left five people dead, two critically injured and 14 others injured.

The accident happened on the N1 highway near the R28 Randfontein road.

Dollman said at the time that a taxi and a car collided at 6.30am, causing the taxi to roll off the highway.

Three men and a woman died on the scene before paramedics arrived, another critically injured woman died later on the scene despite efforts by paramedics to resuscitate her. Official road fatality statistics would only be released on Thursday, said transport department spokesperson Collen Msibi.

The department last released the statistics on 5 January, indicating that road deaths had dropped to 937 in December 2008 compared to the 1535 deaths recorded in the 2007 holiday season.

Sapa