Wrong way taxi horror on Field’s Hill

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Durban - Wessel Jordaan has worked in Baghdad and is accustomed to hazard. But the last thing he expected was a minibus taxi hurtling down the “up” carriageway on the deadly Field’s Hill in the rain. As the taxi approached him in the fast lane, Jordaan told his teenage son to brace himself and “hold on”. On Tuesday he described how he had to react fast to avoid a collision last Thursday. Jordaan was driving up the hill and the taxi came down the wrong way in poor visibility. “I have worked in Baghdad, so I know how to react in dangerous situations.”

A dash camera in Jordaan’s vehicle captured the incident on video at 6.45am while Jordaan was driving his son to school.

He uploaded the video to his Facebook page this week and users reacted in anger to the taxi driver’s actions.

Jordaan said at first he thought it could be an emergency vehicle on its way to an accident but then saw it was a taxi.

The KwaZulu-Natal Transport Department said the incident was “barbaric and shocking” after it viewed a copy of the video sent by The Mercury.

Jordaan said he believed the taxi driver, who had been alone in the vehicle, had wanted to “murder someone” and even flashed his lights to get Jordaan to move.

“When the taxi was in front of me, I slowed down and put my hazard lights on because I could see there were vehicles behind me and I wanted to give them a chance to move out of the lane. The taxi then flashed its lights at me and I moved out of the lane.”

He said he had not heard of any accidents related to the incident.

Jordaan said he had not made a statement to the police because he did not have the taxi’s registration number, but he would be willing to help the authorities if a case was lodged.

“I would help because I have been trying to find the number plate with the help of friends because I do want something to be done. We cannot just let this happen and do nothing; we need to stand up.”

He said he was now anxious because his wife usually drove their son to school.

“It was the first time in four months that I was taking him to school. It is scary to think what might have happened.”

Transport spokesman Kwanele Ncalane said the department would certainly investigate the incident. “We have to authenticate the video and, if it’s true, we have to see if we can track the number plate to take legal action. There are cameras on Field’s Hill, so we hope that the incident was recorded by them.

“For a person to drive in the wrong direction on such a dangerous road, which has had a history of fatal incidents, is quite shocking. I could not believe it when I watched the video.”

He added that the taxi driver's actions supported Transport MEC Willies Mchunu’s view that accidents were caused by human error and negligence.

“There is no excuse, the traffic in the carriageway he ought to have been on was flowing. He was aware that an accident might happen but carried on driving in the wrong direction.”

The Mercury