Bricks thrown from bridge a threat

GEORGE NEWS - Wilderness resident Pierre Kubel, his wife Amélie de Buretel de Chassey d'Hust, and friends Francois and Marie Hisquin had a terrifying experience when a paving brick hurled from the Thembalethu bridge smashed the windscreen of his car while they were driving on the N2.

It was at about 19:15 on Monday night, 8 March.

Kubel was lightly injured. He says they were on their way from Wilderness to meet a friend at Fancourt and took the N2 instead of going through George. They were travelling at about 100km/h when the brick hit the windscreen. "It sounded like a bullet. It was horrible. It caught the steering wheel and my little finger."

Kubel was bleeding but kept driving to avoid a collision with traffic from behind. They went to the Mediclinic where a doctor sewed up his finger.

Kubel reported the incident to the Thembalethu Police.

The windscreen of Pierre Kubel's car was shattered by the paving brick thrown from the Thembalethu bridge.

He said it was not an isolated incident. "A friend of ours who lives in Victoria Bay recently saw how kids were launching bricks from the bridge onto passing traffic at three in the afternoon, so this kind of thing also happens in brought daylight."

Kubel said the doctor who treated him, Dr Chetan Patel, had also done a skin graft on a truck driver whose vehicle was recently stoned from the bridge. Dr Patel's office confirmed the incident and said the patient has already been discharged from hospital.

Southern Cape Police spokesperson Capt Malcolm Pojie confirmed that two incidents that happened on the same day, 8 March, are being investigated by Thembalethu detectives. In the one incident a 66-year-old man was injured while travelling on the N2 highway near Thembalethu when his vehicle was struck with a stone/brick that damaged the windscreen.

A similar incident was reported where a vehicle travelling near the pedestrian bridge (near Zone 9) in the direction of Pacaltsdorp was hit by an unknown object. The incident caused damage to the front and left of the vehicle.