A young man from Motherwell is lucky to be alive after crashing his car off the N2 Highway into the Swartkops River in Bluewater Bay early this morning.
Atlas Security raised the alarm after the accident took place around 01h30. Emergency Services were notified. Three members of Bluewater Bay Surf Lifesaving Club’s Rapid Response Rescue Squad and iPatrol arrived at the scene within minutes. There they met local resident, Johnny Cable, who lives on Amsterdamhoek Road.
Cable noticed a man lying on rocks on the riverbank. He summonsed the ambulance crew. The paramedics stablised the patient who indicated there were five people in the vehicle when it crashed. He then indicated there were four people in total. He was transported to Dora Nginza Hospital.
The lifeguards searched throughout the night and were joined at 07h30 by NSRI, who carried out a search behind the breakers where the river enters the sea.
The search operation continued until 08h00 before it was called off after it was established the man had dropped the other three passengers safely off at their homes.
The vehicle was pulled from the river at around 06h00 and carted away on a truck,
Bits and pieces of the wreckage were found drifting in the water. What could be retrieved was brought to shore.
The engine had separated completely from the body of the vehicle. It was also recovered.
This is the fourth time in about five years that a vehicle has crashed through the barriers on the N2 and landed in the water. The most horrific incident was in October 2019 when four British tourists died, after the vehicle in which they were being transported crashed over the barricade, down the embankment, landing upside down in the water.
