Their act of bravery saves woman’s life
Mantshebo Sefali was travelling to work from Barberton where she resides, when she was involved in an accident with a truck on the R40 in the Hilltop Pass.
A motorist from White River braved a blazing vehicle to rescue a critically injured occupant before it was completely engulfed in flames.
Not only had he witnessed the accident the vehicle had been involved in moments earlier, Craig Bateman (27) did not allow the heat and flames to deter him from cutting the safety belt and dragging Mantshebo Sefali (29) to safety.
Sefali was travelling to work from Barberton where she resides, when she was involved in an accident with a truck on the R40 in the Hilltop Pass.
Bateman told Lowvelder that he and his team had been driving behind the truck before the accident occurred. According to him, the driver had lost control over the truck and collided with Sefali’s Kia Sportage.
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“I stopped and we jumped out. I told the guys to stop the traffic, because it was right on a corner, so I was worried that we would get hit by another car. I then went over to the car to check whether she was alive and breathing.”
When Bateman got to Sefali’s vehicle, smoke was coming out of the engine. Bateman and his team used two fire extinguishers in an attempt to put the fire out.
“The fire was not extinguished. Another person stopped next to the road and we used a third fire extinguisher, but that did not put the fire out either.”
He could see that Sefali was still alive. An off-duty police officer grabbed a rock and smashed the window of her vehicle. “I grabbed a knife, cut the seatbelt and pulled her out.”
Paramedics later arrived at scene to help Sefali and to take her to hospital. She was critically injured.
On Wednesday October 6 she was in a stable condition in the intensive care unit of Kiaat Private Hospital.
Sefali sustained a head injury as well as fractures in her left leg, hip and hand.
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Bateman said he used to be a guide in the Kruger National Park and that he luckily had some experience in first aid. “That training just kicked in without me thinking about it. There was danger and it had to be moved out of the way.”
On Monday October 4, Sefali’s sisters, Shirley and Felicia Khoza, found Bateman and surprised him and his team at work to thank them for their bravery. The two got teary as they thanked Bateman for saving her. They gifted him a balloon in the shape of the superhero Batman, and said he was their Batman.
“Our sister would be dead were it not for Craig. He and his team got her out of the car just in time before it was engulfed in flames. I can’t believe how brave they were; even I would be scared to get close to a burning car. We need a lot of Craigs in this world,” said Shirley.
