Pipes fall from truck into vehicle
2008-07-22 09:37
Paarl - A couple from Bonnievale will have to spend several weeks in Paarl Hospital after scaffolding pipes fell off a truck and pierced their vehicle.
Farm manager William James, 52, had both his legs pierced by a pipe.
They presume the same pipe slashed a large chunk of flesh from the buttock of his wife Annatjie, 53.
"If those things come loose, you don't stand a chance," William had said to his wife before their accident, speaking about pipes on another truck.
The couple were on their way from Franschhoek to Paarl on the R303 at about 12:30 last Wednesday, when a truck carrying scaffolding pipes approached them, travelling in the opposite direction.
'It was too late'
William said the pipes, which had been lying against a railing, started shifting and suddenly fell off the side of the truck.
"I tried to swerve but it was too late."
The pipes also hit the bonnet of another vehicle but its passengers were uninjured.
William and Annatjie did not initially realise the seriousness of their injuries.
About five pipes with a diameter of about 60mm shot through their bakkie, William said.
One pipe went through the door of the vehicle, through William's right leg and then through his left leg, with the end protruding on the other side.
"I got out to phone because I was worried about my husband," Annatjie said.
It was then that she saw the piece of flesh on her own seat. She only realised something was seriously wrong when someone who had stopped at the side of the road told her she was covered in blood.
William tried to get up but collapsed in a pool of blood.
"Only then did we realise the seriousness of the situation," she said.
Pins, skin grafts
William had lost a lot of blood and, in an attempt not to lose consciousness, he pressed his hands hard against the tarred surface of the road. There were still marks visible on his hands on Monday.
Pins will have to be inserted into William's thighs but doctors would first have to determine whether there was any infection. He will only be able to leave the hospital in about six weeks.
Annatjie needs to receive several skin grafts and will have to spend about two weeks in hospital.
The hole in her right buttock will remain there. It is too big to grow closed and stitches won't be effective.
The couple's vehicle, which was not insured, was written off.