Centurion resident hailed roadside hero
A resident jumped in to help when a live wire electrical pole fell over, blocking the street and creating a danger to motorists late at night last week.
When an electrical pole in a Raslouw street fell over, blocking the street and creating a danger to motorists late in the evening last week, a local man put his own life at risk to stand in the dark street to divert oncoming traffic.
“This is just a genuine guy who looked out for everybody’s wellbeing,” said resident Jan Pretorius of fellow Centurion resident Dries Dreyer (47), who acted swiftly when the pole fell over.
Pretorius said that he and several others would like to praise Dreyer for his bravery.
“Some might turn a blind eye when something like this happens,” said Pretorius.
“But he put his life at risk to stand there in the street in the dark.”
Dreyer told Rekord that he doesn’t consider himself a hero.
“I just thought I would help out where I can because I didn’t want any accidents to happen.
“It was worrisome as the road is quite popular for speeding. The pole would have caused so many accidents because it was completely dark at the time. One Uber driver didn’t even notice the pole in the road, and it could have ended horrifically if I had not made an effort to stop him,” said Dreyer.
“I am in no position to be hailed a hero, I only did what any resident would and should do.”
Dreyer said that after reporting the incident to the metro, a maintenance crew arrived within 20 minutes to tend to the pole in the road.
“I would like to thank the metro for reacting as quickly because people could really have been hurt. The live wires were exposed and apart from crashing, people could have injured themselves there.”
He said the pole was removed from the road and the metro fixed the problem and replaced the electrical wires the next morning.
“We felt safe because they were on site the entire evening. At around 05:00 another car came to take over and they repaired the poles that morning.”
Dreyer has lived in Raslouw with his wife for almost 14 years.
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