Another rock throwing incident
uMhlanga resident targeted in rock throwing incident on the M4.
FOLLOWING the rock throwing incident from the Blackburn Bridge last Friday, another local resident was lucky to escape serious injury after she was a target of a rock-throwing incident, this time on the M4 (the Ellis Brown Viaduct), on Monday afternoon.
uMhlanga estate agent, Tessa Douglas, said she was travelling home from the Berea when the incident happened. “As I was driving home, I was thinking of going the Durban North route, when I looked at Athlone bridge it was very crowded, so I turned down towards the Blue Lagoon to go on the M4 route, and took the slip road up onto the bridge.
“The slip road was empty and the traffic on the bridge was sparse. As I came onto the bridge I noticed two pedestrians coming towards me along the bridge. I took no real notice, they were about 25 metres ahead of me. I started to accelerate as the bridge was clear, but for some reason I actually slowed down, and a second later I heard an enormous explosion. I thought I had been shot at. There was glass shards all over the car and a big dent in the windscreen where a brick or concrete had hit it,” she said.
Douglas said she believed that by slowing down, the object had missed her side window where she believed the two men were aiming for. “My colleagues and I had been discussing the rock-throwing incident at the Blackburn Bridge and we felt that by slowing down I had minimised the velocity and therefore the impact of the brick,” she said.
Douglas added she had no recollection making the decision to break and slow down.
“As I drove on I looked in my rear view mirror. The two young men, one in blue and one in khaki sauntered towards the slip road, the one in blue looked like a cricketer waving his arms around correcting his throw,” she said.
Durban North SAPS spokesman, Lt Raymond Deokaran, said the station was aware of the incident and warned drivers to be vigilant when driving near bridges and to be cautious of suspicious pedestrians.
“The most important thing is not to stop and to drive to the nearest police station,” he said.
