Emergency services closed off part of Ranger Road in Fish Hoek on Monday night after an SUV hit a stationary truck before slamming into a home’s palisade fence, injuring two.
Those at the scene described how the SUV, a white Lexus with one of the new CAA number plates, came from the Sun Valley side of Ranger Road before hitting the light truck, a Hyundai H100, parked facing the sea.
Damage to the two vehicles suggested the driver side of the Lexus hit the back of the Hyundai on its left side. The force of the impact spun it about so it was facing the opposite direction.
The Lexus meanwhile careered off the road, the back of the vehicle sliding between two trees and hitting the steel palisade fence of 108 Ranger Road, half toppling it.
The crash happened just before 7pm and police, firefighters and paramedics arrived on the scene within minutes.
Rescuers freed the woman in the SUV’s passenger seat who was wailing in distress. Then they used the jaws of life to free the man in the driver’s seat, getting him out at 8.10pm.
Jenny Nelson told how she had been about to put the dinner on when she and her husband, Dave, heard a “God almighty bang”. They rushed outside to investigate: Dave’s truck wasn’t where he had parked it. “He always parks his truck in front of the house facing Fish Hoek Beach. When he went out, it was facing Kommetjie,” Ms Nelson said.
She ran inside to call Cape Medical Response (CMR) who arrived on the scene within minutes. “They were fantastic,” she said.
Jeanette Haw and Huntly Jay at 108 Ranger Road were just finishing their dinner when their most unwelcome guest dropped in at 6.45pm. “I looked at the clock in the lounge and wrote the time down in my little black book,” Ms Haw said.
“We had just eaten our supper, and
then there was an almighty bang. I ran to the door and saw the big backside of
this car in my face,” she said, adding: “He must have been going at one helluva
speed.”
Ms Haw said emergency services had arrived on the scene very quickly. She praised the police and the tow-truck staff for helping to right the toppled fence.
“One really appreciates help in a situation like that,” she said.
According to CMR managing director Darren Zimmerman, the female passenger appeared to have non-life threatening injuries at the scene, while the man was unconscious and in a critical condition.
Sergeant David Steenkamp, who is investigating the crash, asked that anyone with information about the next of kin of the two people in the SUV call him at the Fish Hoek police station at 021 784 2700.
