Cape Town - A Mitchells Plain mom says she is lucky to be alive after she was hit and dragged by a taxi on Tuesday.
Moeneeba Solomons, 34, says she got a fright when the Toyota Quantum “appeared out of nowhere”, knocking her off her feet and she landed underneath the van.
The mother of two suffered injuries to her arms, legs, abdomen and face as skin was ripped off her body during the fall.
Solomons spent the morning at Home Affairs in Alpha Street, Town Centre and was passing the Caltex garage when the incident happened.
“I was looking for work so I went to Home Affairs to get my ID sorted. I walked through the garage and the taxi just came and hit me at full speed,” she explains.
“I just remember the taxi hitting me and I went under the taxi as it dragged me. I was lying on the ground under the taxi and remember feeling the pain of the tyres going over me. Then the driver tried to reverse and I had to hit the bottom of the taxi and shouted for him to stop.”
Solomons says after a few minutes she saw police and a red truck arriving.
“The fire brigade had to get me out from under the taxi and then they put me in an ambulance and took me to Somerset Hospital. But the driver just left and the police did not arrest him.”
Fire and Rescue Services spokesperson, Theo Layne, says they responded to a call for help with a pedestrian who had been knocked over at 11.10am.
“Police were on the scene, but there is nothing on our records that indicate it was a hit and run,” he says.
Solomons’s boyfriend, Riedwaan Jacobs, 29, says he went to the Delft Police Station to report the matter.
“(But) they said she must come make a case herself with the J88 form. We want this driver to be arrested because she could have died with him driving like that.”
When the Daily Voice visited Solomons on Thursday she was unable to get out of bed.
“They sent me home, but I can’t do anything,” she said.
Police spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Andrè Traut, confirms the incident.
“The driver said the brakes of his taxi failed when he tried to stop the vehicle. The matter is under investigation,” Traut says.