Friend of Gerhard Mans shares witness’ account of fatal accident

A good friend of former Namibia rugby captain Gerhard Mans, who died Wednesday after being struck by car while cycling, has shared his account of what happened, according to a witness.

Mans, 60, who captained the Namibia national team and also played for the Free State for many seasons in the late 1980s and 1990s, was out cycling Wednesday morning on the western bypass of Windhoek.

According to a friend, Jaco Lamprecht, who was quoted by Informante, Mans was struck by a car which veered into the yellow line section of the road.

“We waved at each other as we passed coming from opposite directions,” said Lamprecht.

“At the Okapuka bridge, I turned around and wanted to catch up with him so we could ride together. Before the Elisenheim bridge, I could see Gerhard in front of me.

“I passed under the bridge and waved at Gerhard Junior (Mans’ son) as he passed me on the other side of the road on his way to the Okahandja roadblock.

“The next moment there was a commotion on the road in front of me,” Lamprecht said.

“A police kombi was busy pulling onto the road sideways. I saw Gerhard lying on the shoulder of the road.

“We immediately saw it was a fatal accident.”

Lamprecht said another cyclist, who had a punctured tire, was standing next to Gerhard.

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“He saw everything that happened.

“He told me he saw the driver in the white BMW coming with police cars behind him. The driver was busy on his cell phone.

“The next moment he swerved, over the yellow line, and hit Gerhard at full speed.

“He stopped about 100 metres further. Because the police were right behind him they immediately stopped and cordoned the road.”

“I called an ambulance and said it was urgent. We called the family to get Gerhard Junior; he was unaware of what had happened,” Lamprecht said.

The witness to the accident told Lamprecht the police did an alcohol blow test on the driver of the BMW, a Botswana national, that showed 0.23. The car had no number plates or a license disc. He was arrested at the scene.

“This is such a tragedy. Gerhard was 100% within the yellow line and totally unaware of the BMW coming from behind,” Lamprecht said.