SANParks vehicle goes off bridge

[Richprins]

The thing is, as good as everything sounds, the Southern approach is very steep, and hemmed in by large artificial mounds on either side.

The bridge approach is also high on that side, coming off this Southern entry, which is almost a cliff.



Pic from nan.


The only way you can lose direction is going to the left down the ancient maintenance/construction road. Clearly not the case, as the vehicle ended up on the downstream side. Point is, if there were a hippo on the southern entrance uphill, which is extremely unlikely given the steep gradient, that would have lead to leaving the road quite a long way before the bridge, bashing into the embankments there etc.?

For those that know the bridge, firstly it would not be a route for hippo, unless perhaps full frontal on the tar coming from the north, or secondly, the steep incline is a big reason for slowing down, no matter how experienced the driver.

My personal opinion is that it was a simple instance of "Friday night" staff entering after an outing to Phala, and having a drunk-driving accident. But just my opinion!

[Lisbeth]

This is what they saw

[nan]

maybe
but enough big to be seen

[Duke]

[ExFmem]

Maybe it wasn't a hippo they saw, but a pink elephant...

[RobertT]

To damage the rims like that and get the vehicle completely off the bridge imo means there was a bit of speed involved. I have seen rims that have hit pavements at 60 etc and the damage is not as bad as that. To have the damage on the front and back rim consistent means also there was little slowing down and the vehicle went off the bridge at an almost 90'.If you look on RP's vehicle you would possibly see an example at the moment (if there are pavements in Nellie's?)

[Flutterby]

[Richprins]

We have pavements, Robert..slowly being eroded!

My previous vehicle did indeed have an indented rim!

[Bushveld Jock]

The whole incident really put SANParks as an employer in a very bad light. Just think for one moment that for an unforeseen reason the accident happened and the passengers and driver had sever head injuries and bleeding. Even if there was reception or radios they were all injured and left to die only to be found the next day not alive anymore due to blood lost. Luckily it did not happened, but compare to 7 years ago it could have been a nasty reality.

I cannot believe that no-one followed up why they did not arrive back at camp within the allowable time. Surely driving at night can be very risky and you might even run into poachers as well. They can defend the driver, but the action from park management were very poor and indicating to no concern over the well-being of workers or control over poaching.

[Richprins]

The official response came quite soon after I reminded media, who were in the Park at the time, to follow up again.

SP are maybe now over-cautious about responding, instead of shooting from the hip as with past incidents...?