Man dies after road-rage attack
2011-04-08 09:09
Seugnet Esterhuyse, Beeld
Pretoria - A businessman has died after he was punched twice in a road-rage incident in
Pretoria.
Koos
(Smiley) Vermeulen, 62, from the Rietfontein agricultural smallholdings in
Pretoria, died on Wednesday after he was assaulted last Friday by a man who then
sped away.
The attacker
hit him after both apparently got out of their vehicles.
Vermeulen's wife, Marguerite Vermeulen, 53, found her husband moments after the
incident.
He lay on the road next to his bakkie at the intersection of Delmas Road (the
R50) and De Villeboi Mareuil Drive in the east of Pretoria.
Arrest
A man will
appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Friday in connection with the
incident. He was arrested last Friday after a witness followed him when he
drove off.
The witness
pushed a piece of paper with a registration number into Vermeulen's wife's hand
at the accident scene. One of the bystanders said: "That man just drove
off".
Bystanders
told her that the attacker had punched her husband twice, after which he collapsed.
Lyttleton
police station spokesperson Captain Brian Plaatjies confirmed the incident.
Vermeulen
was a businessman and managing director of his own company, Vermillian paint in
Capital Park.
Vermeulen
and his wife had been married 35 years. That morning, they had driven to work minutes
apart. She arrived on the scene on her motorbike.
"Pappa, don't worry, I'm here," she said to him on the scene. He was
still alive at the time.
Last words
These
were her last word to him, she said on Thursday.
"It
was a terrible shock to see my husband lying like that on the tar road,"
she said.
"He
was unconscious and blood ran from his mouth.
"Even
though there wasn't eye contact and he couldn't speak, he knew I was
there."
Their two daughters, Johaliza Potgieter, 33, and Sulenza Vermeulen, 31, were
supporting their mother on Thursday.
"It
was a big honour to have had a father like him," said Sulenza.
Vermeulen
said her husband had sustained serious head injuries in the incident.
He underwent
surgery to relieve pressure on the brain due to swelling. On Tuesday he was
operated on again to drain bleeding on the brain after an artery ruptured in
his head. His brain stem was damaged. He never regained consciousness after the
attack.
Vermeulen died on Wednesday morning in the Kloof hospital.
He was also survived by a son, Johan, four grandchildren, two brothers and two
sisters.