Boeriebash attendees: Hijack safety tips

Update

GEORGE NEWS - Avis Van Rental and George Business Chamber hosted the last Boeriebash networking morning of the year on Friday 24 November, where guests learnt a host of life-saving safety tips.

Guest speaker Penny Wagnaar of MasterDrive told the businessmen and women what to do should they ever find themselves the target of a car hijacking.

Statistics given by Elna Schwartz from Avis Van Rental show that 50 761 car hijackings took place in South Africa from April 2016 to March 2017.

Of these victims, 21 502 were female drivers. A total of 2 201 hijackings happened in the Western Cape during this period.

Wagnaar explained that there are three different types of hijackers - the "professional", the "lone ranger" and the "tikkop".

Professional hijackers come with military or police training.

"They do not want blood, they are just there to take your car and will not just shoot you if you oblige," said Wagnaar.

The lone ranger can be the car guard in the parking lot at your local supermarket or mall.

He works on his own and is usually neatly dressed.

The tikkop is the most dangerous, as he would be looking for a fix and will do anything to get it.

Penny Wagnaar of MasterDrive gives vital tips for how to act in a hijacking situation.

Wagnaar said in some hijackings where a group work together, stickers are used to identify a potential victim.

One of the perpetrators puts a sticker onto the rear window of the victim's car while he or she is waiting at a traffic light. When the victim stops at the next set of traffic lights, his mates would strike.

Wagnaar's tips included:
Keep your windows rolled down very slightly to make it more difficult for a perpetrator to break them with a spark plug.

Keep enough space between you and the car in front when you draw to a standstill, so that you will be able to drive away.

Be vigilent and cogniscent of your surroundings all the time. Check all rear-view mirrors regularly.

Do not give in to road rage and never use a cellphone.

These are some of the biggest distractions which not only cause crashes, but make the driver less aware of what is going on around him, and therefore more vulnerable.

In the event of a hijacking, remember that, from that moment on, nothing belongs to you.

Never look at the hijacker. Tell him that everyone is going to get out through one door, or the two doors that are on his side of the car where he can see what is happening.

With Penny Wagnaar (right) from MasterDrive are Mary-Anne Loose, George Business Chamber secretary, and Marius Barnard from Diskonto.

If you have children in the back of the car, let them all climb over your lap and exit the car through the driver's door before you dislodge your seatbelt with slow movements, clearly showing the hijacker your hands are open and you are not going to reach for a weapon.

Once out of your seat, keep your hands tucked in front of your chest and crouch low, never looking at the hijacker, so as not to appear threatening, and get away from the car as fast as you can.

Wagnaar also talked about road crashes which cost the country's economy R300-billion a year.

She said the number of people dying in road crashes every year in South Africa is equal to a passenger aircraft falling every day, 365 days a year, killing all the passengers on board.

To demonstrate the effect of alcohol and drugs on a driver's ability, guests were invited to walk along a small circuit while wearing drug or alcohol simulator goggles, which made for some good laughs, but brought across the message that a driver's ability and judgement are severely diminished by mind-altering substances.

Schwartz thanked Wagnaar for her support towards making the last Boeriebash of the year a memorable one.

The demonstration with the "drug / alcohol" simulator goggles was the highlight of the day. Wesley Pillay (in red) and Hendrik de Goede, both from Avis van Rental, tried them out.