Later that week…
So after the events that led to the writing of the fire and water blog, I thought that nothing could stand against that. I as usual was wrong.
A woman driving down the R72 thought it a novel idea to over take on a blind rise corner… not the smartest thing she could have done. You see it ended with her slamming into side of a petrol tanker. The result, one person dead and more than 370 000 litres of up in smoke.
The woman driving the bakkie, was killed on impact. Her left leg was amputated below the knee and her neck was broken, it wobbled around on her body like a bobble head toy. Her passenger, a 40 year old woman who was 4 months pregnant. She was lucky, only sustaining burns to her head and face. Paramedics told me that she started going into labour soon after the accident. I was unable to find out if the baby survived, but my guess it didn’t.
The tanker on the other hand, was gutted through and through, it burnt so hot it melted the tankers frame into the road. Some how the driver was left unhurt. Lucky bastard! According to him, after the woman hit the tanker, the petrol ignited causing a massive explosion.
The day after the tanker went boom, a woman thought it a novel idea to jump 17 floors to her death on the road below. Word of warning, when you jump from a building you really go splat all over the place.
I got the call while sitting in the office. Seeing for some or other reason I am the goto guy when it comes to anything containing death I grabbed my camera and note pad and raced out to the scene.
This poor woman, jumped 17 floors and lay splattered all over the road. The one thing i will never forget for as long as i live, was this womans underwear. Her pants must have fallen down as she fell from the roof. She was wearing these little green undies with white flowers over them. Doubt she ever took notice of these undies at any point of what had been her life. They did the job so she didn’t ever give them a second glance. Now they where there for everyone to see. Covered in her blood and urine. Her stomach had split open and her intestines were hanging over her functional green undies.
I remember standing next to the body, talking to the police spokesman, trying to joke and make light of some thing, just to escape from this this terrible image before us.
All around us, were hundreds of people fighting each other to get a look at what remained of this woman, mother, daughter, wife and friend. It made my sick to see them take out their cell phones and take photos. They screamed and laughed as police and fire department tried to load her into a body bag. I screamed a them, ” Look at you people!, you make me sick, this poor woman is dead and all you can do is laugh and scream. Why do you have to take photos and video. Look at you, your standing in her body fluids.”
The crowd stopped for a second to look down, at their feet. Drying stomach fluids and other human body fluids lay at their feet. They didn’t even miss a heart beat, they just continued to talk and mutter about how far she fell. I looked down at my shoes, I was standing in a pool of this womans bloody urine, my camera around my neck…
Wonder what next week will hold.
McNab Report 