John Berger of Bokburg writes:
I am assuming that any subsequent consequences may have come to the Advertiser’s attention, but probably would not have been supported by all this information.
Yesterday (October 9), at approximately 12.30pm, after visiting my mother in Van Dyk Park, we were returning home through Boksburg on Trichardts Road, going North.
At the traffic lights that control cars leaving the Civic Centre/Municipal car park, just before the railway bridge, we were confronted by about 10 privately owned, overloaded, swerving and hooting cars sporting multiple balloons.
They drove at us en mass, through the red light, in the middle of the intersection.
I veered off into the south bound lane to avoid an accident just before the bridge, and fortunately no cars were in the oncoming road.
The errant drivers proceeded under the bridge with passengers hanging out of the windows, hooting and swerving all over the road.
I tried to avoid them, but one or two were actively turning sharply across the road at us, to prevent me passing.
Again they ignored the Railway Road red light en mass, and a couple of innocent motorists crossing the intersection had to slam on brakes to avoid hitting them.
Some of the vehicles then stopped en mass, blocking Trichardts Road completely, while hooting, whistling and shouting insanely.
They were, presumably, drunk, but I saw no flags to deduce if they were supporters of a specific sports team or a particular political group.
To circumvent the potential bedlam, I turned right at Railway Road East, with the intention of crossing Boksburg North via Campbell Road (11th Street).
We heard and could see chaos around the intersection of Cason and Trichardts roads as we entered Boksburg North.
I decided to go to the Boksburg North Police Station to report the motorists, before something serious occurred.
Just before Fourth Street, where I had intended to turn towards the police station, we were again accosted by the hooting and swerving hooligans.
Again they ignored the stop street at Charl Cilliers Street and again blocked the road.
We saw a police car in the vicinity but did not witness it racing towards the chaos with sirens blaring, as we would have expected.
To evade this chaotic cavalcade of obvious misfits and to avoid further personal risk we decided to go straight up 11th Street and return home.
In 1984, in Boksburg, my family and I were confronted in much the same manner on a Sunday afternoon by an off-duty policeman who pulled me over for hooting at him.
He had skipped a red robot in front of me and had caused me to swerve to avoid a collision.
I managed to talk my way out of a physical altercation, because he was clearly drunk and extremely belligerent.
I refused to be drawn into anything, because I had my wife and children in the car.
He then decided to harass us and constantly sped past me and then slammed on brakes in front of me.
This behaviour was obviously to provoke me further.
He eventually left us alone as he swerved across three lanes of oncoming cars to join a couple of police cars parked on the opposite side of the road.
I watched as they all greeted each other, laughing and pointing at my family and I, while we were stopped at the traffic lights.
At the time, I felt like a helpless victim without any rights or recourse.
Yesterday I experienced the same feeling all over again.
As a proud member of the Boksburg community, property owner and ratepayer for more than 35 years, I would like to know if anyone was hurt or, God forbid, killed during this depraved display of wanton debauchery yesterday (October 9)?
I would like to enquire as to what celebratory function at the Civic Centre enables this behaviour, and has anyone taken responsibility for the incident?
I would, thirdly, like to be assured that this incident (assuming it took place at the civic centre or thereabouts) was not paid for by my municipal rates.
I hope this communiqué can shed some light on any incidents that may have happened yesterday (October 9) and can go towards preventing future similar occurrences.
Editor’s note: The EMPD has not yet responded to our enquiry.
EMPD nab 16 traffic fine dodgers in R21 operation
