A Table View man's car was damaged to the tune of R60 000 after a group of minibus taxi drivers teamed up against him in peak hour traffic and forced him off the road.
Steve O'Brian, who works at a prominent city salvage company, was also threatened and spat at after he had blocked a taxi when the driver threatened a woman who was driving behind O'Brian.
The incident happened in heavy peak hour traffic on Otto du Plessis Drive on Monday at 8am.
Taxis were forcing their way past the traffic by driving on the road shoulder inside the yellow line and forcing their way through the long line of vehicles that stretched back to the Bayside shopping centre, O'Brian said.
Continues Below ↓
"The woman behind me had blocked a taxi's way past on the road shoulder, so he pulled up next to her, leaned out of his window and knocked on her car's window," O'Brian said.
"When she looked at him, he pointed his hand at her like a gun, appearing to threaten that he would shoot her."
O'Brian, believing that the woman's life was in danger, then pulled his car in front of the taxi to allow the woman to get away.
"Suddenly, there were four or five empty taxis from Du Noon around us. One came up on the white line between the rows of cars on my right side and then another came up from the left on the dirt next to the road and rammed my car."
O'Brian's beloved Subaru WRX was scraped and dented from the rear fender to the front wheel arch.
Police have warned that although it was not prevalent behaviour, it was not uncommon for taxi drivers to team up and intimidate drivers. Such behaviour would however not be tolerated, said police spokesman Andre Traut.
This breaking news flash was supplied exclusively to iol.co.za by the news desk at our sister title, the Cape Argus.
For more about this story, carry on watching iol.co.za or click here to subscribe to the digital or print edition of the newspaper.
|