A soft-spoken, kind-hearted and polite 24-year-old man from Saldanha was killed in a gruesome motor-vehicle collision on the R45, just outside Malmesbury, last week.
Jaden Peter, who attended Saldanha Primary and Vredenburg High School, was on his way to his aunt in Somerset-West on the morning of Thursday 11 April.
This was a road he had travelled on numerous times before, according to his mother, Jayshree Peter, whose car he was using on that fateful day.
“He was an extremely cautious driver. I always felt safe when he was driving. I had complete trust in him, even while he was learning.”
A video of the accident scene was how she learned of the accident. A friend called to tell her that she saw her car in a video about an accident near Malmesbury.
Just as she was about to tell her husband, Silas, he got off the phone with the police, who had told him their eldest son had passed away.
Motorists driving past the accident scene around 07:30, near Rooidraai, were shocked at the state of the car and the Checkers lorry. The lorry was carrying goods to Langebaan.
Captain Tania Helfrich, spokesperson for the West Coast police district, said it appeared Jaden lost control of the car, which veered into the opposite lane against oncoming traffic and collided with the lorry.
Jaden, the only occupant of the car, died on impact.
The “tall guy with a gentle soul” was studying accounting through Unisa.
According to his father he had an acute social conscience and was pained by all the wars being waged in the world.
Jaden loved nature, gardening and his pets, and he was a good handyman.
He taught his family, including his brother Ethan (20) and sister Jineve (17), to recycle.
His mother remembered his strict motto about organic kitchen waste: “You never put it in the bin, you put it back into the earth, into a compost heap.”
Jaden was very close to his grandmother.
“They were joined at the hip,” Silas said, and this relationship made him exceptionally kind to elderly people. He also helped Silas with volunteer work at old-age homes.
His parents said that though it is hard to process this tragedy, they have a deep faith and trust in God.
. A case of culpable homicide is being investigated by the Malmesbury police.
