GQEBERGHA – A 30-year-old truck driver from Gqeberha was rescued on Friday 18 September in a three-hour swift-water operation after becoming trapped in his vehicle on a flooded low-lying bridge near Patensie in the Eastern Cape.
The incident occurred when the truck — en route to collect a load of citrus fruit from a local farm — became trapped on a low-lying bridge spanning the Gamtoos River on a farm road between Patensie and Hankey.
Louwrens Bezuidenhout, NSRI St Francis Bay deputy station commander, said the NSRI St Francis Bay duty crew was activated at 19:33 following a request for assistance from a Patensie farmer.
The bridge had been swamped by recent heavy rains, and has been repeatedly flooded since May, leaving the roadway and bridge surface slippery.
When the truck failed to arrive on schedule to collect the citrus load, the farmer went to search for it. Finding the truck trapped on the low-lying bridge in the river, he raised the alarm.
The multi-agency response
NSRI St Francis Bay dispatched a private vehicle carrying NSRI rescue swimmers, while NSRI Jeffreys Bay dispatched rescue swimmers and an NSRI CROC — a small floating rescue craft — transported in an NSRI rescue vehicle.
NSRI Gqeberha, which was conducting a routine regional exercise at its Station 6 rescue base, dispatched NSRI Gqeberha, NSRI East London and NSRI Volunteer Support Centre (VSC) rescue swimmers — all of whom were at the training exercise — in private vehicles and an NSRI rescue vehicle.
The SA Police Service, Eastern Cape Government Health EMS rescue squad and Smart Security were activated to respond, while Police Search and Rescue’s Water Policing and Diving Service (WPDS) was placed on alert.
Swift-water rescue operation
Bezuidenhout said the man was trapped in the cab of the truck, not injured but unable to escape due to the fast flowing swollen river rushing at cab height around the truck.
NSRI rescue swimmers established a technical rope pulley system to reach the truck. In a complex three-hour swift-water rescue operation hampered by the fast-flowing river, rescue swimmers waded through swollen water using anchor ropes, established a pulley system with the NSRI CROC, and secured the man into a life jacket before bringing him to safety aboard the rescue craft.
Driver recovering in hospital
“The man was medically assessed by the EMS paramedics, he was transported to a hospital for further medical evaluation in the care of EMS paramedics and he is expected to make a full recovery,” Bezuidenhout said.
NSRI rescue crews returned to base at 01:00.
Police are investigating the circumstances of the incident, and a heavy vehicle recovery team is investigating methods to recover the vehicle once the swollen river subsides.
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