13th September 2011

Had a lovely evening celebrating my fellas daughters 13th birthday, was such fun.  So glad we all love sushi!!

Horrific story.......

Woman dragged 700m under taxi

At the four-way stop intersection at Concourse Crescent, the bakkie driver is alleged to have pulled up alongside the taxi, climbed out and tried to speak to him through the window. It is believed that the woman also got out of the bakkie and stood in front of the taxi while her companion argued with the taxi driver.

In the middle of the argument the taxi driver pulled off, knocked the woman over and continued speeding away while she was trapped under his vehicle.

The bakkie driver got back into his vehicle and chased after the taxi, hooting and trying to stop him. Other motorists who witnessed what had happened also tried to stop the taxi, but the driver continued, jumping a red light at the Lonehill Shopping Centre.

Bruce Weyers was driving in Lonehill when he noticed something hanging from under the taxi’s rear. He realised it was a woman whose feet were under the taxi, with her torso and head sticking out.

“I couldn’t see her feet and assume her clothes had hooked her under the taxi. She was awake and she had a look of trauma on her face. The freaky thing is she wasn’t making a sound,” said Weyers.

He stopped his car and started running after the moving taxi, trying to get him to stop. “But he picked up speed and I couldn’t get near him,” said Weyers. He said three other drivers saw what was happening and gave chase.

Weyers tried to call Emergency Management Services, but said that when he told the operator there was a taxi accident and they needed help, the call cut out and he tried several times to call back without success.

“In desperation I called 702 (radio),” he said, explaining how his panicked description of a woman being dragged through Lonehill underneath a runaway taxi had gone out on live radio.

Charles Jurgens was driving along the same road, taking his children to school, when he saw a number of cars chasing a taxi.

“They managed to corner him into a side road where he had no choice but to stop,” said Jurgens.

At this stage, the woman’s companion managed to stop the taxi driver with his bakkie.

“People went to go and help the woman get out from the back of the taxi while others went for the taxi driver. They were so angry I thought they were going to beat him up,” said Jurgens.

Crown Mkhuashu, a Fidelity security guard, was with colleagues at a morning parade on Lonehill Boulevard when they heard the commotion and saw a taxi jumping a red robot with a woman trapped underneath.

“We thought it was a hit-and-run and tried to stop the taxi, shouting at the driver to stop. However, he just kept on driving and suddenly a Corsa (bakkie) overtook him and stopped in front of him. That was when the taxi stopped. The man in the Corsa got out, went to the woman and cried as he started comforting her. We were so angry. We had tried to stop the taxi driver because we had seen him dragging the woman with his vehicle, but he had refused to stop,” Mkhuashu said.

Mkhuashu said he and his colleagues started pushing the taxi driver, who reportedly refused to say why he hadn’t stopped.

The woman had been hooked under the taxi because her clothes had caught on pieces of metal on the undercarriage. She had been wearing gym clothes.

“We freed her, but she was badly hurt,” the 24-year-old guard said. Mkhuashu and his colleagues called paramedics at the nearby Lonehill Fire Station.