German tourist dies on her way to Kruger just hours after landing in SA

She’d been looking forward to seeing the Big Five and having sundowners on the shores of the Sabie River. But for 54-year-old Antje Fitzner, from Durmersheim in Germany, it was sadly not to be

She was travelling with family members on Saturday, 12 October from OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg to the Kruger National Park when their vehicle was in a head-on collision near Dullstroom on the N4 highway.

“There are often roadworks on that road and we suspect they’d swerved to avoid roadwork signs when they collided with the other car,” says Deon Broekman from emergency service Rapid Response.

The German tourists were travelling in two cars.

Antje was sitting in the back seat and wearing her seatbelt, but the force of the impact is said to have made the seatbelt cause massive internal injuries.

She had internal bleeding, a head injury and a cracked pelvis.

“We gave her three units of blood on the scene before airlifting her to the Lenmed Hospital in [Johannesburg],” Deon says. “It took us more than an hour to stabilise her at the scene.”

Antje died from her injuries the next day.

Antje’s remains will be flown to Germany.