Durban - A Pinetown motorist narrowly escaped what she believed was a bullet that came through her left passenger window and shattered the windscreen as she was driving on the N3 on Tuesday.
Candice Harris, 31, said the incident happened at about 3.45pm.
She was driving alone towards Pinetown from Durban and, when she passed Paradise Valley Nature Reserve, before the split of the M13 from the N3, there was a sudden explosion on the front left passenger window. She noticed that the windscreen had also been shattered.
“I thought someone had thrown an object at my car,” she said.
The shaken motorist slowed down, but continued driving. She did not see anyone standing around.
“I headed to Pinetown to get my windows repaired,” said Harris.
When the glass repairs specialists at Glasfit in Pinetown assessed the damage, they told her they believed a bullet had been fired at the car.
“They said the burn marks on the left window and the windscreen were proof that it was a bullet.”
Kevin Paliyathan, the manager at Pinetown Glasfit, said that in between the two layers of glass was a vinyl film.
The left passenger window and the windscreen of Harris’s car both had burn marks.
“Something hot like a bullet could leave burn marks on the vinyl. The marks suggest something hot penetrated the windscreen, and the only hot thing that can penetrate a windscreen at that spot and create that sort of damage is a bullet.”
If it was a stone, “it would not burn the vinyl”.
The cost of repairs was R4 600.
Harris said stones had been thrown at her cousin’s car when he passed the same spot the previous day.
She had not reported the incident to the police.
The Mercury