Cape judge in coma after golf accident

2011-11-01 16:38

Cape Town - Western Cape High Court Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso is in a medically induced coma after she was hit by a golf cart, the Cape Argus reported on Tuesday.

The cart was driven by an advocate at the Royal Cape Golf Club,

Her nephew, Nicholas Traverso, told the newspaper that she was playing a round at the club on Sunday when she was hit.

"She is in ICU in a Cape Town hospital, on a ventilator, and she is asleep, in a medically induced coma," he said.

"She has broken a number of bones - a long list, from her pelvis to her shoulder - and has various internal injuries, including a punctured lung. But her condition is stable," he said.

The driver of the cart, Acting Judge Robert McDougall, an SC with the Cape Bar, said: "It was a freak accident horrible, terrible, terrible. Here you are having a nice round of golf with your friends and then this happens," he said.

"We had decided to walk nine holes, and then drive nine holes, because of her knees. We had played only four holes, until the rain came down, then had breakfast, and then decided to head out again.

"We had to let some people through, before the next tee, so we stood around and let them through. Once we let them through I was the first to set off. She was standing in front of me, she was maybe a metre from me.

"I pressed the accelerator carefully, and the next thing the front of the car biffed her.

"I got the fright of my life.

"I must have pressed the accelerator again, thinking it was the brake, and then next thing the wheels were on top of her," he said.

Traverso is the first woman acting judge president in the country. As deputy judge president of the Cape Bench, Traverso has filled in for Judge President John Hlophe a number of times.

She has been deputy judge president since 2001.

- SAPA