Fourways family fall victim to road rage

Natasha Ramiah explained that her husband, son, sister and her were driving from Pineslopes towards Witkoppen Raod and were behind a silver Mazda, which was driving very slowly through the robot. They decided to press their hooter as they were in a rush and when the vehicle did not speed up they decided to pass by. “He [the driver] was literally crawling and being inconsiderate as he was holding up a line of cars,” Ramiah claimed. According to her, once the family got onto Witkoppen Road, the driver of the vehicle pulled up alongside them and became verbally abusive, while showing them rude hand gestures. “He did this while he had two small children in his car,” she added.

When her husband rolled down his window to ask what the problem was, the driver allegedly said that he wanted to beat him up for hooting. The family did not retaliate but the driver allegedly continued to deliberately drive alongside them, while holding up other cars. When the family stopped at the intersection of Witkoppen Road and Main Road, Ramiah’s husband again rolled down his window to ask the driver to leave them alone.

“He [the driver] was racially abusive,” she claimed. “He then got out of his vehicle and punched the driver’s side window of our car twice… hard. We thought it would shatter but luckily it didn’t.”

“I cannot believe that people like him exist in this day and age,” she added.

The Ramiah family managed to take photos of the driver and have his vehicle registration number in their possession, which this journalist has seen.

Warrant Officer Balan Muthan of the Douglasdale police said that the family should come to the police station as soon as possible to report the incident; a case of intimidation would be opened against the driver and he would be brought in for questioning. “We should practice restraint and tolerance of fellow motorists,” Muthan said.