Karma Dad writes:
Dear Mr N12 Biker,
This incident happened on November 27 at 6.33am on the N12 direction westbound between the Atlas and Rondebult off-ramp.
After doing my observations, all I saw was a lady in a white Mercedes-Benz behind me and a car next to her in the middle lane.
The middle lane next appeared to be running freely and I needed to gap in to get to Rondebult Road.
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I switched on my indicator to move over to the middle lane and all of the sudden when I started moving over and looking in my side mirror again I caught him (the biker) in my blind spot flying through traffic halfway into me changing lanes.
I swerved back into my lane, missing him and preventing an incident from happening.
He also had to brake and swerve to prevent his bike from hitting me.
All of the sudden, all hell breaks loose. He is driving on my passenger side making gestures and showing me his fist and hitting at my side mirror.
I showed him my hands to gesture ‘sorry, didn’t see you’.
He kept on making signs with his hand.
My son (7) started crying and asking “what’s he doing daddy, why daddy”.
He then backed off to the rear of my car and all of the sudden accelerates, speeding past my passenger side and with his right hand hit my side mirror off, breaking the glass and mechanism.
My son was crying and screaming frantically.
Luckily, the lady in the Mercedes-Benz saw what happened.
She proceeded to escort me from one lane to the other until we were in the emergency lane at the E-toll gate just before the off-ramp.
I jumped out and ran to the passenger side to take my son out and held him, trying to calm him down.
The lady also helped to calm him down.
She took my contact details as she had a dash cam that recorded the incident and later that afternoon sent me the video and a zoomed-in picture of the biker’s registration.
After making calls to start the repairs for the damage caused during the incident, I came to a realisation.
About three years ago, I was in a bike accident where I was driving down North Rand Road, on a bike, and ended up between two cars.
I had a serious leg injury from the incident and the youngster who was in one of the cars kept saying “maar oom ek het jou nie gesien nie, sorry oom”.
It took my leg three years to recover.
As a biker, I now realised that we need to think as well.
Yes, it is nice to be flying through traffic very quickly, but in a 10th of a second things can change.
Our bikes are smaller and a lot faster than a normal vehicle and that makes it so dangerous for us as bikers.
Car owners must also be more cautious when on the roads, especially when changing lanes.
Remember the rules of the road and following distance so that everyone can clearly see you on the roads.
I really would like to meet with this biker and say sorry to him for what happened and I would like him to speak to my son who is still scared and shocked.
I would like him to contact me and see if we could arrange a meeting.
I will not hold him accountable for any damages to my vehicle as I have already fixed it.
I have learnt a good lesson out of this incident and really would like to thank him for that.
My experience out of these two incidents is that karma is something that comes back to you no matter what.
Editor’s note:
The N12 biker can make contact with the writer through the City Times at benonicitytimes@caxton.co.za
