It’s a risk every traffic cop takes - stepping out into a road to stop a speeding car.
|||Durban -
It’s a risk every traffic cop takes – stepping out into a road to stop a speeding car.
On Sunday, Thuli Nhlengethwa, 35, was killed by a driver who failed to stop when she tried to call him in and, even after he hit her, he continued speeding on the N2 southbound, near Durban’s Spaghetti Junction.
The driver of the silver Audi, which police say was stolen, was chased down by traffic police and pulled over, but the driver escaped into an informal settlement, leaving his passenger in the car.
Nhlengethwa, who was based at the Road Traffic Inspectorate in Pinetown, was conducting a “speed timing exercise” at 11am when she signalled the driver to pull over, Transport Department spokesman Kwanele Ncalane said.
The car did not have number plates and was reported stolen in Roodepoort in Joburg, he said. He also said the driver was going at 141km/h when he hit Nhlengethwa.
Gareth Jamieson, of Rescue Care, said the officer was dead by the time paramedics reached her.
Police spokesman Jay Naicker said
a case of culpable homicide had been opened.
Ncalane said the department would call for harsher charges to be brought against the driver.
“Not just because the officer was one of our own,” he said, “but because the driver’s actions were reckless and appeared deliberate.”
Transport MEC Willies Mchunu said Nhlengethwa was a “dedicated officer” and her death was “sad and shocking”.
Mchunu offered his condolences her family and her “RTI family.”
* In a separate incident, a man was killed in a hijacking in Hillgrove, in Newlands West, on Sunday.
Naicker said three men held up the 37-year-old and shot him. He died at the scene.
“They took his Ford Bantam and fled,” said Naicker.
Police gave chase, but the suspects abandoned the vehicle at Riverdene (also in Newlands West) and ran away.
The Mercury