Johannesburg - As a speeding bakkie dragged her body down Sekoto Street in Newtown, all Lucia Matlou remembers is how badly she wanted to stay alive.
“I wasn’t going to die. I told myself that today I am not prepared to leave my three-month-old daughter behind’,” Matlou said, speaking from her Parktown flat on Friday.
She was caught on close-circuit TV footage in a hit-and-run incident that took place on Wednesday. The video went viral on social media, sparking outrage and horror.
The 32-year-old was hit by a white bakkie, which caught her left leg and dragged her for about 30 metres. “I was thrown up into the air, then I could feel myself being dragged and (felt) how hot the tar was,” she said.
Her body bears testimony to her ordeal. Her shoulder, thighs and leg are badly scorched and she will need extensive skin grafts. She’s still in a lot of pain: “I cry like a baby every time I have to clean my wounds.”
She was released from Joburg’s Charlotte Maxeke Hospital just a few hours later, but Matlou said people who had seen the video assumed that she had died. When she saw the video she was amazed that she’d survived.
Matlou said that, on the afternoon of the incident, she and her landlord’s 20-year-old daughter Denise Nkomo were walking to the Pick * Pay at Newtown Junction Mall to exchange some clothes.
As they were crossing Sekoto Street, a car travelling along Bree Street, about to turn into Sekoto Street, hit Matlou, narrowly missing Nkomo.
The vehicle didn’t slow down but eventually she fell free.
In the video, horrified bystanders are seen rushing to help Matlou.
Her partner, Malik Onyemaechi, rushed to the accident scene immediately.
It took the ambulance 30 minutes to get there, and he was grateful that she was still alive. Matlou’s sister, Nokuthula Mguni, said that when she saw her after the accident she cried and told her she was still beautiful. In her flat, holding her baby, Matlou still can’t believe the man didn’t stop immediately after he hit her.
“I can assure you that he saw me. Looking back, I think he thought that I was dead and that is why he didn’t stop,” Matlou said.
It is believed the van had collided with another vehicle and was escaping from the driver when he hit Matlou.
But Matlou has been warmed by people’s compassion and concern for her after the incident.
“We still have good people in this world. My cellphone and my niece’s clothes were returned to me. The only thing missing are my black-and-gold sandals. I don’t know where my sandals are,” she said.
Doctors have given her two weeks to heal. “I was brave enough to watch the video. I’m a survivor. I’m a living testimony. God protected me through it all,” she said. She said she will go back to the accident scene, even though it may be traumatic.
As for the driver, Matlou said she had one message for him: “Crime doesn’t pay.” She said that, while she’s forgiven him, justice should take its course.
Founder of e-blockwatch André Snyman and members of the group are working to trace the vehicle and the hit-and-run driver.
Police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubela said a case has not yet been opened as Matlou has not reported the matter. Matlou intends reporting the case once she can walk.
Saturday Star