A PEDESTRIAN was struck by a motor vehicle and killed on Sunday evening in Richards Bay.
According to Richards Bay SAPS police spokesperson, Captain Debbie Ferreira the incident occurred at 7pm on North Central Arterial and the man was knocked down by the vehicle while crossing the road.
‘A witness reported that the tragic accident happened just after the robot intersection past John Ross College, and the vehicle involved fled the scene.’
‘The pedestrian was declared dead and police were able to track the vehicle, which the driver had eventually abandoned, with a passenger still inside.
A case of culpable homicide is being investigated.
Ferreira said if anyone is involved in a road accident they must stop and remain at the scene.
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My Husband, brother, sister in law and I were the first ones on scene. Sunday night was a difficult one to swallow, it showed me how humanity is lost in our country, but shortly after we stopped and blocked the traffic there were a few other good Samaritans that also stopped.
My concern for our town is the response times of the SAPS, AMBULANCE and the MORGUE.
The hit and run literally happened 2 cars ahead of us at 19:11, I immediately called the police and the ambulance. the police arrived at 19:34 – I know this because I called colonel Mazibuko to complain about a SAPS vehicle that casually drove past the scene without stopping to attend to us – the colonel followed up and called me back as another saps vehicle stopped at the scene.(The Ambulance Arrived shortly before this)
While we were waiting for the police and ambulance I went walking looking for the deceased cellphone or wallet that he may have dropped while my husband stayed with the others by the body and my husband is a level 2 first aider. To my horror I found one of the deceased’s shoes almost 50m from his body and the other off the road even further away this immediately told me he was hit at an extreme speed.
we stayed at the scene for long as we were worried and sad for the deceased – the paramedics pronounced him dead at, I think it was 19h45 and they left shortly after that, as it was the morgue’s responsibility to remove the body, we left at about 21h00 and the morgue had still not arrived, this to me was very unacceptable as there are many families, with kids, that drive past to see a corpse in the road – this is not something for kids to see, or anyone really, surely out of respect to the deceased he should be removed as quick as possible – I was disgusted. I must say the only form of “authority” that I was impressed with was Pillay – from the traffic police, he was there before the ambulance and SAPS, he jumped in and tried to get to the bottom of it all immediately.
I would like to thank the Samaritans that stopped to truly assist with the situation – not those that stopped out of curiosity, as there were many.
I think that night the community that assisted found out more about what happened before the police did, because there were people that we chatting to all connections to bust the guy that hit and fled – well done and thank you.
I just hope the ZO will let us know if the driver is caught and brought to justice, as I am sure we all have our doubts.