DEATH MOST BIZARRE
Tshenolo Mogapaesi of Gabane village breathed her last early Monday morning at Bokamoso Private Hospital following a gut-wrenching accident that left her with severe bone fractures.
Tshenolo’s father, Odirile Mogomotsi (60), told The Midweek Sun in an interview this week that his daughter was hit by a car while doing laundry at home last week Friday.
On that day, Mogomotsi had just left his homestead for an evening church session on the other side of the village but while a few meters away, he heard a loud crash.
The sound disturbed him momentarily, wondering what had happened. He thought of going back to check what was happening but decided against it.
Mogomotsi continued with his trip. He walked to church. But before arriving at his destination, he met an old friend, who asked if he had received news of what happened back home.
“I told him that I knew nothing and he advised that I make a U-turn immediately. I did not argue and went home.
“When I arrived, I found my daughter lying on a door, which the police were using as a makeshift stretcher. As for her body, it was all covered in blood.
“My house was wrecked. I noticed that my bedroom window was broken. A car had crashed into one of my houses.
“The vehicle was stuck there and the man who was said to be the driver of the car was lying motionless on the ground,” Mogomotsi narrated.
When he asked what had happened, nobody had any clear answers for him.
“We have heard from eye witnesses that the car was travelling at a very high speed along the tarmac which passes in front of our home, when it unexpectedly flew into our yard, found Tshenolo doing laundry and it hit her.
“It hit her so hard that her body went crashing into the window to her father's bedroom, inside which her body was found,” Culistas Mogomotsi, a family relative chipped in.
When Tshenolo’s body landed inside her father's bedroom, it crashed into a wooden table, a plastic chair and a glass television stand. All those were found broken, while she was lying unconscious beneath the television stand.
After hitting Tshenolo, the car seemingly changed direction, instead of crashing into the old man's house, it changed direction to the right, and crashed into Tshenolo's bedroom, a weird thing, according to the family.
"We wonder what was really happening, the wrecked house which the car ended up driving into belongs to the deceased, all her properties were in there.
“Everything is gone, she died and her belongings are destroyed," he said, adding that their family dog which had been resting behind the house also died that day, the falling bricks crushed its skull and all its intestines had
spilled out. They have since burned the dog.
Mogomotsi added that on the day, when he took a proper look at her daughter, he could see that she was badly injured; he thought the injuries were not major but was shocked when he saw that her clothes were ripped out of her body. Her knee bones had stuck out, her legs and ribs badly broken.
As for the hands, the doctors informed him after she was rushed to the hospital that if by any miracle she survives, chances are that they will cut them off because some blood veins had ruptured. And if left unattended, the hand would most likely decay.
"The past days have been unbearable. We are now waiting for the police to give us her body. If all goes well, burial will be this coming weekend," Mogomotsi said.
He added that they are in talks with the young driver's parents about the matter.
"We have met them and cannot share their names for now. We have been busy but we will have to go and inform them that our child is no more," he said.
Mogoditshane station commander, Boemo Bok confirmed investigating the matter. He said the 21-years-old driver is still hospitalised. The car he drove into Mogomotsi's homestead is a Toyota Runx model.
"The last time we checked he was said to still be in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The passenger he was with however, has been released from hospital. At the moment, I cannot tell if the driver was under the influence of alcohol or not," Bok said.