Runner cut in half by speeding car
2013-02-11 10:03
Stephen Coan, The Witness
Pietermaritzburg - A runner was cut in half by a speeding
car while jogging with his partner in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday morning.
Accountant Neil Robinson, 60, and his partner of a decade,
Lynn-Rae van den Berg, 43, were both training for the Maritzburg Marathon to be
held on 24 February when the accident happened at about 08:00.
Van den Berg was too distraught to speak to The Witness on
Sunday, but provided a photograph of her and Robinson after they completed the
Maritzburg half-marathon in 2011.
The accident was witnessed by Sonya Breytenbach while
driving with her son Chaz.
“I was on my way to Maritzburg Christian School for my son’s
ball skills day.”
Along Alexandra Road Extension Breytenbach saw Robinson and
Van den Berg, running on the side of the road. She then saw a white Hyundai
Getz coming towards them at speed. “I saw him drift across the road and then he
obviously realised that he was on our side of the road and was about to hit
another car, a bakkie, that was in front of us.”
Lost control
The driver tried to avoid a collision and moved back to his
side of the road “but he was going so fast that he lost control of his car and
hit the male runner, luckily the lady runner was a little behind him and wasn’t
hurt at all,” said Breytenbach.
“I stopped the car and got out. She was saying ‘My partner,
my partner’. His body was cut clean in half… the pieces were about five metres
apart.”
The Hyundai Getz rolled and came to a stop and the driver
got out, said Breytenbach.
“There was blood on his head. He had taken off his white
T-shirt and put it on his head.
“I walked up to him and asked him if he realised that the
man was in two pieces and his response was ‘I didn’t do it on purpose’.”
Breytenbach said the scene was so horrific she didn’t want
her son to see it so she drove him to school and dropped him off before
returning and trying to console Van den Berg.
“I can’t get the horrible scene out of my head. It’s not
something you expect to see - things like this happen in the movies, they don’t
happen in real life,” said Breytenbach.
Alexandra Road Extension resident Nasheera Maharaj was just
opening her front door to leave for the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market in
Alexandra Park “when I heard these sounds and saw this white thing fly past - it
went by so fast.
“The driver of the white car hit the motorised gates, the
palisade panels and then continued onto the neighbours’ property.”
The first that Maharaj’s neighbour Henrietta Whelan knew of
the accident was when she heard the sound of the crash. “My first thought was
‘oh no not another accident’ - we’ve had so many in the last two years along
this road. Then I heard a woman screaming. Then my husband said someone’s taken
out our front gate.”
Whelan said she regularly saw the couple jogging.
Culpable homicide
Police spokesperson Lieutenant Joey Jeevan said they were
investigating a case of culpable homicide with the possibility of adding a
charge of reckless and negligent driving.
Jeevan said the driver received “serious but not critical
head injuries” and is currently in hospital in a stable condition.
The driver’s name is known to The Witness, but he cannot be
named as no charges have been laid. He is thought to be around 20 years of age.
The police have appealed to any witnesses of the accident,
particularly the driver of the bakkie, to come forward. They are requested to
contact the investigating officer, Sergeant Samantha Kerr, on 033 8457724 or
076 4379439.
