For three minutes‚ Rudi Viljoen watched as a truck drove head-on into coming traffic‚ waiting for the worst to happen.
He captured the harrowing moment on Sunday as the truck tried — unsuccessfully — to overtake another truck and‚ in the process‚ forced several cars to drive in the emergency lane to avoid being wiped out. Luckily‚ nobody seemed to be injured‚ but Viljoen said the incident had spurred him to action.
His video has gone viral since it was posted‚ garnering more than 45 000 shares by Tuesday 10am. It has been watched more than 1.1-million times. His post said action needed to be taken “before innocent lives are lost“.
“It’s a common thing on the N1‚” Viljoen said. “I’m a regular user and you see it on a daily basis. It’s just hectic.”
His son took the video from the backseat as the two were traveling about 50km from Laingsburg in the Western Cape.
“It was nerve wracking. It’s attempted murder; it’s reckless driving‚” he said.
Viljoen said urgent action was needed.
“I definitely blame the driver‚” he said.