Wesley Meyers knew something was seriously amiss on the highway when he saw that traffic was heavily backed up.
“My gut told me something was wrong when I saw the heavy traffic and then suddenly I saw the car on fire and I jumped out of my car and left my 2-year-old son sleeping in the car and just ran to help,” said Meyers.
When he got to the car, on the Tygerberg Hill, just before the M16 Jip de Jager/Mike Pienaar turn-off, he noticed the man was semi-conscious.
Gideon Odendaal, believed to be in his late forties, was pulled out of his car by Meyers and Gerhard Conradie shortly before it caught fire on the N1 after it had crashed into a lamp-post.
“As we were moving further and further away from the car it blew up and the fire got bigger. I am just glad that we were there at the time and were able to help him,” said Meyers.
Mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith confirmed the driver had survived.
“If it were not for the two men he would likely have died,” he said.
In a separate incident, a man was killed on Saturday afternoon after his vehicle rolled on the Seven Passes Road on the Garden Route.
ER24 spokesman Russel Meiring said paramedics found a motor vehicle lying on its roof in the middle of the road.
“The lifeless body of a man lay a few metres away,” he said.
The man was declared dead on the scene. Four other men in the vehicle escaped without injuries. – Sunday Argus