Somerset West resident suffers chest injury from stone-throwing incident

Dr Bruce Webb of Somerset West sustained a chest injury when an unknown assailant hurled a brick at his vehicle, shattering the windscreen and damaging the steering wheel, as he was driving to the Cape Town International Airport. 

He said the incident happened at around 7pm on Thursday, November 13, when he was going to meet friends at the airport.

There were three of them inside the vehicle when the incident happened, but the other occupants were not injured.

“We were driving on the N2 just before the Borcherds Quarry Road turn-off. So I saw an aeroplane taking off and I looked right to see the aeroplane, and then I looked straight ahead again. And just after that, there was a guy I caught out of the corner of my eye. This was just before the turn-off. He threw a brick into the windscreen. He just lobbed it casually into our windscreen.” 

“The brick shattered the windscreen, came through, and hit me in the chest. I could not breathe properly, and I thought I was going to pass out,” he said.

Dr Webb added that he turned on the off-ramp and continued driving towards the traffic light as he was worried that the attackers might be trying to hijack the vehicle. 

He said he drove until he found a safe area, where he switched to the passenger seat and allowed his wife to drive to the hospital.

A computed tomography (CT) scan was conducted in the hospital, and found no fractures, but only a soft tissue injury, Dr Webb said.

Nokuzola Plaatjie, the spokesperson for the hospital where Dr Webb said he was admitted, stated: “Due to patient confidentiality, (we) cannot provide any information or confirm the admission of any patient within our facilities.”

The police could not confirm the incident by the time of publication.

Emre Uygun, the councillor from Freedom Front Plus, said they have received many complaints from motorists who had been victims of stone-throwing attacks on the N2, including a family from Johannesburg that was targeted on Tuesday, November 11 at around 8pm. He said another incident involved a vehicle that was struck by a brick earlier this month on the Stellenbosch Arterial, just before turning onto the R300.

However, the City said last month that 40 Metro Police officers were deployed to enhance safety along the N2 and neighbouring Airport and Borcherd’s Quarry precincts.

“We are deeply committed and have invested substantial resources to improve safety on the highway for our residents,” said JP Smith, the mayoral committee member for safety and security.