Durban – Devaraj Pillay was having his daily afternoon nap when he was woken by pieces of his ceiling and tiled roofing material falling on him, followed by a loud bang. Little did the Newlands West resident realise then how close he had come to death, as a stolen bakkie had crashed through his boundary wall and flipped on to his roof before landing in his neighbour’s property.
Pillay, 72, who lives on the corner of Kingshill Close and Hillgrove Drive, later realised that he and his wife Theresa were lucky to have survived after their roof caved in. “I was lying down in the afternoon as I usually do and then I found all of these rocks (the cement pieces from the wall) and my ceiling on top of me. “I thought I was dreaming until my wife ran to me and started screaming, wondering what was going on,’’ he said of Tuesday afternoon’s incident. Theresa was asleep in another room when parts of the roof came crashing down on her and got up in shock. “The wall is still cracking in my bedroom by the second,” she said on Thursday.
It is alleged that a teenager was enjoying a naughty cruise with his friends when they increased the speed of the double-cab Isuzu bakkie on the main road in the area and lost control of the vehicle. The bakkie then veered into the Pillays’ home, damaging their front and back concrete fences and roof before falling to its side in their neighbour’s property. “It’s very strange that it hit our home, because our home isn’t close to the road,’’ Devaraj said. He questioned the speed at which the bakkie was going for it to have caused such damage to two properties. The family have since relocated to a neighbour so that reconstruction can begin.
The Pillays’ neighbour, Morris Vencatasu, 69, said he emerged from his home to find the bakkie had flown into his property on its side, causing his home’s windows to shatter. “I heard a loud bang and when I ran out, I saw this bakkie on its right side covering the backyard. How it came to be there I don’t know,’’ he said.
Vencatasu said he ran back into his house to call for an ambulance. He went back out and found that all the occupants had got out of the vehicle. One ran off as he spoke to them. The owner of the bakkie said he didn’t know who was driving the car at the time and that his son was out of hospital and recovering at home.
Life24/7 response ambulance services spokesperson Leon Fourie said there had been five teenagers in the bakkie at the time. One sustained a fractured arm, while the others escaped injury. The Newlands East SAPS are investigating a case of reckless and negligent driving, said police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala.