Hit & run Merc driver left his brains at home

Some mornings, when I don't leave for the office before dawn, I take the kids down to catch their lift through to school.  This morning was one of those.  The route runs past Tygerberg Zoo down a fairly quiet and narrow road, parallel to the N1.  There are usually a lot of labourers on foot and on bicycles as well as school kids waiting for buses.  You need to be alert.

Just past the entrance to the Zoo I was flagged down by an agitated fellow.

His mate, a 59 year old guy who works with him at a nearby County Fair farm, had been knocked off his bike in front of him and was now lying in the ditch with a broken arm and lacerations on his head. I have to say that to survive something like this at the age of 59, you have to be one tough SOB!  To say he had been "knocked down" does not adequately describe what seems to have happened.  The guys at the 147 call centre got me through to Emergency Services pretty smartly and the cops (3 vans), a traffic officer and 2 ambulances made it within 20 minutes.  Needless to say a tow truck beat them all by about 10 minutes!

The guy was hit from behind on the far left hand side of the road - the far right in the picture above as he was coming down the hill towards the camera - (his bike had reflective  tape, so he had tried to make himself visible), "carried" (I assume on the bonnet?) for about 150m (the skid marks are 100m long - the cops measured them -  began in the middle of the road and ended on the far right - camera's left) before being tossed into a ditch.  The marks of the acceleration away from the scene are obvious here.  The driver bolted, leaving the cyclist broken in the ditch with his bike a mangled wreck.  Fortunately for him, his mate was on the other side of the road and saw it all happen and was able to flag us down.

What the driver obviously did not factor in, was this:

He left a good portion of his number plate (and a Merc decal off his car) on the scene.  Before I left the scene, they had his name & address and make & colour of vehicle.

I hope they nail the bastard.  He obviously had no idea if the cyclist was alive or dead when he (I suppose it could be she?) fled the scene. 

Disgusting.