Durban - A motorist was stabbed repeatedly when he stopped his car in Durban after hitting a rock just after the Botanic Gardens Road-N3 bridge before dawn on Wednesday.
Within minutes two other motorists had also hit the rock and damaged their vehicles.
Etienne van der Merwe and his daughter’s boyfriend, who asked not to be identified, were driving in separate cars for a photo shoot on the beachfront before sunrise.
“My daughter’s boyfriend’s car was behind me.
“He hit the rock but thought he had had a blowout and pulled over.
He started taking off the wheel and then noticed a crowd had gathered where Berea Road and Warwick Avenue meet,” Van der Merwe said.
Although it was still dark (5.20am) he could see something was going on but wrongly assumed it was people assisting another motorist or just talking.
“He was engrossed in trying to sort out his problem and catch up with us and be at Moyo before the sun came up,” said Van der Merwe.
“Fortunately he phoned us and we turned around to assist him,” he said.
As he approached, Van der Merwe saw a man hold a cloth against his head.
He stopped to investigate and, as he did, a taxi driver approached him and told him he had also just driven over a rock and shattered his gearbox.
“We went to see what was going on with the other guy and he told us he had been stabbed and his wallet and cellphone had been stolen.”
The injured man’s car’s front suspension was badly damaged and he was bleeding profusely from the multiple stab wounds to his head and torso.
Van der Merwe called paramedics, but was frustrated by an operator who spent two minutes trying to vet the authenticity of his call and he was made to hold on.
Meanwhile, two policeman had pulled over.
Van der Merwe left the scene while the bleeding victim was talking to the police.
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said the victim was a 52-year-old man who had been accosted by two men after his vehicle had struck the rock and he stopped.
“Durban Central police are investigating a case of robbery and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
“No arrests have been made,” he said.
The condition of the victim and his name are not known.
The incident is a latest in ongoing rock throwing cases across Durban with the hardest hit area being the N2 Blackburn pedestrian bridge, between Blackburn Village and uMhlanga Rocks.
The Mercury