Occupants in lucky escape after vehicle lands on roof

Four occupants of a vehicle are lucky to be alive after a Nissan Nivara flipped onto its roof landing in thick bush along Bathurst’s Nico Malan Drive towards the toposcope on Saturday afternoon.

“We heard the accident and went to see if there were people who needed assistance,” said a witness who ran to the scene after hearing the commotion.

“On arrival we found the vehicle on its roof; there were four occupants none of who appeared to be injured. The driver appeared to be intoxicated and admitted he didn’t know the bend in the road was so sharp. We contacted emergency services and left the scene.”

The witness said the driver must have been going at breakneck speed because the vehicle appeared to have actually somersaulted in the air while negotiating the sharp bend in the road.

“There is a steep hill following that bend and yet for the vehicle to have somersaulted and landed about 100m from the time he lost control – on an uphill – suggests the driver was going very fast. “The only thing that saved them was having landed between two boulders in thick [bush],” he said.

“The back seat passengers did not have their seatbelts on … and the people in the front confirmed the driver was speeding,” the witness claimed.

The witness said that he was thankful that no other innocent people were hurt or fatally injured. “Many people come to check out the toposcope and there are people driving that road all the time, so imagine what would have happened if that was the case at that time of the accident,” he added.

“There has to be accountability and I am just making people aware to be careful when driving or walking in the area.”

South African Police Service spokesperson for the Sarah Baartman district, captain Marius McCarthy, confirmed the incident saying,  “the 55-year-old male lost control of the vehicle that left the road on a sharp bend and landed on its roof on the side of the road. Apparently the occupants sustained no injuries.”

He said no breathalyser tests had been conducted.

“Police who attended the accident scene allegedly did not have any suspicion or reports that the driver of the vehicle was intoxicated,” McCarthy added.