- A Cape Town man had a near miss during a freak accident on the N2 highway.
- A bed base flew off a truck on the opposite side of the highway and struck his vehicle.
- The man escaped serious injury, but says the accident could have been fatal.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a flying bed base.
While a wooden bed base hurtling through the air on the N2 highway might have been cause for some to stop and stare, a Cape Town man found himself closing his eyes and hoping for the best.
Brandon Cummings was driving along the N2 outbound, near Cape Town International Airport, when he saw a large square object flying towards his vehicle.
"I was just driving along, listening to music, when I saw this box-type thing come flying over the barricade directly at me. I just instinctively closed my eyes and swerved," he recalls.
Once he had come to a stop, Cummings found a large piece of wood piercing his windscreen, in the space where a passenger would have been sitting. He had been hit on the head by a piece of plastic connected to the car’s A-frame, and was covered in glass.
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"There was glass everywhere. It was even in my pockets," he recalled.
While trying to piece together what had happened, Cummings was approached by a law enforcement officer who explained that a bed base had come off a truck travelling on the opposite side of the highway.
City of Cape Town Law Enforcement spokesperson Wayne Dyason confirmed that the officer had witnessed the incident.
The bed base had flown onto the other side of the highway and directly into Cummings' vehicle.
He was left with a bump on the head and small cuts on his body, and considers himself lucky to have got off so lightly.
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"My worst injury is mental. I'm anxious to drive," Cummings said.
"That piece of wood could have pierced me. It would have been fatal to a passenger in my car. Am I unlucky, or am I lucky? I guess it depends on how you look at it."
Cummings was left at the side of the road for some time while he was waiting for help with his vehicle. But during that time, nobody stopped – not even the truck in question – leading him to believe the truck had driver sped off without the bed base.
The 27-year-old has now set out to solve the mystery of the flying bed base, but has been thwarted at every turn.
He said:
The police had not commented to News24, at the time of publication.
Cummings has even tried to access CCTV video footage of the accident, but to no avail.
"The cameras on the freeway belong to the Transport Department (Freeway Management) and Sanral, and access to footage is subject to an application process, and the applicant should register a case. The South African Police Service investigating officer must do their investigation and retrieve the footage as part of the investigation," Dyason said.
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