Quick-thinking teen saves the day

The car before it was repaired. Picture: Marilyn Bernard

The car before it was repaired. Picture: Marilyn Bernard

Published Nov 10, 2012

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Durban - A group of young friends who were almost hijacked when a brick was thrown through their car windscreen have praised the driver, Brendon Buck, 18, whose quick reactions got them out of danger.

Kayla Kenmuir, 18, and Albert Koen, 20, were also in the car going from Umbilo to Hillcrest to drop off another friend, Chesney Jansen, 18, at a promotions job at Friends Pub and Grill last week at about 7pm.

They took a wrong turn off Old Main Road into Highland Road. As Buck did a U-turn to get back on to Old Main Road a man wearing a yellow and orange striped shirt ran towards the car. “This man just started running towards the vehicle from the bushes. He threw a brick through the windscreen and all the glass came on to my girlfriend’s legs because she was in the passenger seat. He tried to open the back left passenger door, but my friend, who was sitting there, managed to pull it back,” Buck said.

“I was so calm. I don’t know why,” Buck said.

“I don’t remember what I did. As soon as the brick came they were all screaming ‘go, go, go’. I put the car back in second gear and just drove,” Buck said.

“We don’t know what his intentions were. I feel really lucky to be alive because he could have killed us and raped the girls and taken the car and no-one would have known,” Buck said.

Kenmuir, 18, said Buck was a hero. “He was very good. He was in shock, but he was the most calm of all and we were just freaking out.”

Chesney Jannsen, 18, who was sitting in the back seat with her boyfriend, said it was “a very scary experience”.

“But the way Brendon handled it was really brilliant,” Jannsen said.

Buck said they had stopped at a garage for several minutes to clean up the glass and to stuff plastic wrapping into the windscreen before driving back to Durban. On their way back, Buck said, they had seen a man wearing what looked like the same yellow and orange shirt hitchhiking with two men near the M13.

Buck’s mother, Noelene Buck, 59, praised her son for his quick thinking, saying she had always taught him never to stop for anything on the side of the road, which turned out to be advice that saved their lives.

“All I can say is thank goodness he didn’t get a fright and stop at night. Luckily, the brick just got lodged and when my son drove off it just stayed there in the bottom of the windscreen,” Buck said.

She said her son had not bothered to open a police case and had simply repaired the windscreen. - Independent on Saturday

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