Councillor dodges truck as trailer blocks Coedmore steel bridge
He suffered a sprained ankle and a few bruises but is glad to have survived the ordeal.
WARD 64 councillor Gavin Hegter was almost run over by a truck driver who abandoned his trailer on the Coedmore Road steel bridge on Friday, 26 January.
Councillor Hegter needs witnesses to come forward to the incident which took place at about noon.
“I received a report about a trailer being abandoned on the Coedmore bridge, which had damaged the railings. The truck driver was nearby and I managed to direct him safely off the bridge. I told him to wait a while for Metro Police but he complained he was going to be late,” said Gavin.
He said the driver got back into and started up his truck. In an attempt to confront him, Cllr Hegter started walking towards the driver but as he reached the front of the truck, the driver allegedly accelerated.
“He was coming straight for me and I had nowhere to go without falling off the bridge.
So I managed to grab the visor of the truck’s windscreen,” he said.
READ: ‘Take ownership of your suburb’ – Cllr Gavin Hegter
The driver apparently kept driving with Hegter hanging onto the truck. “I was yelling at him to stop, I was hanging on for dear life. I don’t know how but I found the strength to move myself from the front of the truck to the driver’s side and I opened his door just as he came off the bridge. It swung open and caused me to fly off but I managed to grab the railing of the bridge,” added Cllr Hegter.
He suffered a sprained ankle and a few bruises but is glad to have survived the ordeal. “It was scary and all I was trying to do was help,” said Hegter. A short distance along Coedmore Avenue, the trailer again detached from the truck, forcing the driver to stop again. Montclair SAPS officers who responded to the scene took the truck driver to the station where a case of attempted murder was opened.
While trucks are not supposed to use the Coedmore Avenue bridge because of its limited size and weight bearing capacity, this is not the first time that an oversized truck has used and become lodged on the bridge. “We just had the railing fixed from the last incident and now it is damaged again,” added the frustrated councillor. If anyone has information about the incident, call Cllr Gavin Hegter on 072-821-1917.
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