A heroic team of security guards saved the life of a baby boy who was critically injured while his mother lay dead in the road following a horrific hit-and-run accident.
SJC Security Services, Tactical Reaction and Armed Response teams were busy patrolling when they came across the harrowing scene along Bottelary and Botfontein roads in Kraaifontein on Friday.
To their horror, they discovered the mangled body of a woman and while cordoning-off the area, they found the baby laying metres away. He was bleeding from the nose, wheezing and in a state of shock.
The baby is believed to be 18 months of age. SJC Tactical and Armed Response officers Ryno Basson, Andre Volschenk and Marchelino Jooste jumped into action to perform first aid.
Jooste removed his jacket and wrapped the child in it.
When ER24 paramedics arrived at the scene, the mother was declared dead and her body was taken to Tygerberg mortuary, while the child was taken to Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital after being stabilised at Cape Gate Mediclinic.
Charl du Toit, chief executive of SJC Security Services, says: “That road is quite dark and when they found the woman, they did not at first know what they were dealing with.
“They immediately called for back-up from their other team members and began cordoning off the area as a crime scene as they were trained to do.
“Had it not been for the team, we don’t know what would have happened to that baby.”
Du Toit says they have been in contact with the police about the woman and child’s identity: “They have not been identified and information has been sent to local farms as it is believed that she might have been from there.”
Police spokesperson, Captain FC van Wyk confirmed a case of culpable homicide is being investigated by Brackenfell SAPS.