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Hit from behind: Kids OK!
Clanwilliam, South Africa
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This accident happened in South Africa on 08 January 2004
on the N7 national road 24 km (15miles) outside Clanwilliam on
the way to Cape Town. I was driving my 1984 BMW 320i 2door automatic and was rear ended by a mini- bus taxi (shuttle van). My wife
and I with two of our children age 3 and 5 ( the oldest one 9
was with her grandparents, fortunately) were returning from a
Christmas holiday.
The legal speed limit on this road is 100km/h (60mph). The truck
in the back ground broke down in the road and a traffic officer
stopped me in order for another truck to over take the broken
down one. I noticed the mini- bus coming from behind at a very
high speed. I reduced my speed from 100km/h to about 30km/h and
started pulling over on the gravel next to the road to make space
for the mini- bus (It can be seen in the back ground approx 75meters
behind me) when it hit me. The brakes of the vehicle was faulty
and had to be "pumped" to work properly. There is a
skid mark from it's left front tyre from the point of impact,
about 25meter before the point where my vehicle came to a stop,
up to the point where it finally came to a stop, another 75meter
behind the point where my vehicle came to a stop. (a total length
of 100m).
My BMW was flung of the road into the ditch where it went tail
over nose and actually hit the top of the embankment (about 3m
high) \ with its boot and roof while up side down. An eye-witness
told me that at this time the car's nose was actually level with
the boot and that it was higher in the air than the height of
the mini- bus. The car then rolled back into the road. My wife
and I had whiplash, she had a broken nose, my 5 year old son broke his right leg close to the hip from being crushed between
the front and the rear seat and had to spend 6 weeks in hospital
and underwent 2 operations, October this year the pins have to
be removed again under surgery. My 3year old daughter only suffered
minor scratches to her forehead.
All of us had our seat belts on. The people in the taxi only
had minor injuries. At this stage of the trip the taxi already
travelled 600km and actually stopped at a service station in
Clanwilliam to have a fan-belt replaced. (Apparently the faulty
brakes did not bother the driver). The traffic officer also had
to run for his life since the taxi stopped about 20m behind the
point where he was standing. Speeding with a fully laden vehicle
with faulty brakes through a mountain pass? Only in SA.
Regards Johan S.
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