Road rage erupts in Ballito

An act of road rage is believed to have endangered the safety of Ballito motorists on Wednesday morning, December 10.

Ballito resident Shay Smith witnessed the incident on her way to work at around 9am in which a white hatchback allegedly almost caused a few accidents in his Flash Gordon quest to get to where he was going, fast.

Smith stopped behind what she described as an elderly man driving a white Toyota bakkie.

“The bakkie stopped at the yield on Edna and Leonora roads, checked that both sides were clear, then proceeded to turn left onto Leonora Drive when out of nowhere like a bat out of hell a white hatch back car came flying around the corner from the right,” said Smith.

She claimed the man driving the bakkie sped up to avoid getting hit from behind.

Smith described how the hatchback drove right up to the bakkie, “hooting like a mad man” and swerving towards the pavement on the left in an apparent effort to push the bakkie off the road.

“The Toyota slowed down to the speed limit again only for this to be repeated,” said Smith.

She said at the BP circle the bakkie stayed in the right hand lane to go straight and the hatchback pulled into the left hand turning lane, rolled down his window to scream and swear at the driver of the bakkie while holding up traffic.

“When it looked like he was about to get out of his car I put my hand flat on my hooter and he turned left and drove off at one hell of a speed without checking for oncoming cars,” said Smith.

She said he disappeared down Ballito Drive past the fire station.

“I stopped to see if the old man in the bakkie was okay and he seemed pretty shaken up. He asked me to report the incident as I had witnessed it,” she said.

The driver of the hatchback was very upset that such a minor incident had been reported to the newspaper.

“Does this woman want a badge for running to the newspaper,” said the Ballito resident.

According to his version the bakkie blindly turned in front of him onto Leonora Drive and hit the brakes when he saw the hatchback behind him.

“I was within the speed limit and this guy just seemed to turn because he did not want to wait,” he said.

“The bakkie had a towbar and I quickly slowed down and swerved to the left to avoid hitting it from behind.The bakkie driver pulled a middle finger on me and swore at me screaming ‘f**k you!’ I rolled down my window and asked the bakkie driver what he was thinking and told him that I would report him,” said the driver of the hatchback.

He claims he tried to call the traffic police twice but nobody answered the phone. He said he didn’t get the bakkie’s registration number and could not open a case against him.