Cape Town - The driver of the truck which ploughed into a car at the foot of Sir Lowry’s Pass this week, killing a young schoolteacher, is facing an additional criminal charge – possession of drugs.
Willem Badenhorst, 43, was behind the wheel of a truck carrying massive containers when it hit the teacher’s bakkie shortly after sunrise on Tuesday at the notorious intersection on the N2.
Provincial emergency services spokeswoman Keri Davids said tragedy struck at 8.08am, at the intersection between the roads to Sir Lowry’s Pass Village to the north and Gordon’s Bay to the south and the N2.
It is understood that the bakkie was turning towards Gordon’s Bay when the truck, travelling towards Somerset West, ploughed into it, cutting the vehicle in two.
The truck plunged down the left embankment into a field, taking the two halves of the bakkie with it.
Davids said the driver, Thelana Kotze, 25, from Stellenbosch, had been declared dead by paramedics and Badenhorst had been taken to Hottentots Holland Hospital in Somerset West with neck and back injuries.
Badenhorst was initially charged with culpable homicide. But police spokesman FC van Wyk confirmed this morning that a second charge had been added after a tik “lollie” had been found in his possession.
It is not clear whether the truck’s brakes failed, as some on the scene speculated.
Years-long construction work took place at the intersection in a bid to make it safer, and it has new off-ramp and on-ramp lanes, and dedicated lanes for vehicles turning right towards Gordon’s Bay.
Kotze’s funeral is to take place this weekend.
Cape Argus