Johannesburg - A truck driver is being hailed as a hero after his fast thinking saved him and two passengers from an attempted hijacking.
At this stage, it is unknown where the incident took place and what type of goods the driver was transporting.
A video making the rounds on social media showed one of the passengers having a brush with death.
Attempted Truck Hijacking/Robbery, luckily, the driver was quick to think. pic.twitter.com/0NVZ9yeE5Y
— CrimeInSA (@sa_crime) July 23, 2023
The 23-second video posted by the CrimeinSA group shows the driver and the passengers entering the truck. As the driver buckles up up, he notices gun-wielding would-be hijackers or robbers approaching the truck, and without wasting time, he makes a dash.
The driver just speeds away, the passenger in the middle is confused. One can see how terrified he is, he clutching on to his juice and sitting back while the driver drives away. One would-be robber is seen pointing a firearm and manages to open the door of the passenger. The diver continues to drive and the passenger almost falls out of the moving vehicle. Due to quick reflexes, as he is on the verge of falling, he manages to hold on to the door and get back inside the truck.
The surviving passenger, after escaping death, is seen heavily breathing, as though relieved that he survived.
All three men at the end look back to see if they have outsmarted the perps, and one can see relief in their body language.
A Twitter user going by the name Boss Zvoboks wrote: “My G (passenger) should go and thank his ancestors”.
Another user, James, wrote: “It is unfortunate that this is the evidence and videos employers want to see so they can believe you were not part of the heist or it wasn’t an inside job ... kudos to the driver, but very risky had hijacker been trigger happy!”
Some users made fun of the passenger in the middle; they said he just held on to his juice.
User Pius Wa Mutsonga wrote: “The guy in the middle didn’t even attempt to pull back the dude in all black ... The driver was carrying three lives plus property on his shoulders; the dude in the middle just needed to look after two lives only in this scene.”
Statistics from the SAPS revealed that 2 573 truck hijackings took place during the first three months of 2023, with hijackers ambushing the trucks, overpowering the drivers, and often stealing both the vehicle and its contents.
Most truck hijacking cases took place in Gauteng, with 272 cases reported. This is followed by Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape, with 55 and 38 cases, respectively.
Tips from Arrive Alive for Truck Drivers, that drivers should all be aware of:
. Consider every unscheduled stop a possible assault. No matter whether it is a police roadblock, a collision, cattle, or a broken vehicle, follow “assault protocol” and prevent an attack.
. Keep your doors locked. The passenger door is the most common access point for hijackers.
. Do not pick up hitchhikers. Not even women. In a recent attack, a driver was given a drink by a woman and passed out. He woke up, tied up, in a field, five hours after his truck was taken.
. Stay in touch with your control room. If you are going to stop, tell them how long, where, and what other vehicles or people are present when you stop. List number plates, if possible.
. When you are hijacked, do not resist. Very few hijackings currently result in serious injury or fatalities. Many cases where drivers resisted have done. Just co-operate; it is less dangerous.
. Do not use your panic button for anything other than panic. Using it to “ask your controller to call you” results in panic alarms being ignored when there is a real panic situation.
The Star