Reader’s comment: N3 highway a truck hijacking hotspot

The N3 Heidelberg freeway – from De Hoek Toll Plaza to Zonkisiwe and Benoni on the N12 – has been identified as a truck hijacking hotpot by insurance brokers, ES Brokers, based on information from the South African Police Service (Saps).



A report on the ES Brokers website, titled ‘Hijacking Trends and Hotspots’ notes that along this stretch of road, white vehicles with blue lights pull vehicles (mostly trucks and trailers) from the road. Suddenly, armed men appear to take the drivers hostage and hijack the trucks.



“The drivers are released a few hours later, but by that time the tracking unit has already been removed,” reads the report.



The FTWO story, ‘Hijacked truck recovered’ – which reported that a second truck had been hijacked near Heidelberg this year – prompted reader,  Shaun Maharajh, to post this comment:



“We had a truck hijacked in the same area in the early hours of Monday last week. The driver was forced to drink a concoction of antifreeze and some other liquids. He is recovering.



“The load – high-value lighting products – was offloaded on a farm close to the R42/ R29 and the owner of the farm contacted us. We recovered most of the load, but the truck and empty container have disappeared. This comment is to make truckers aware that the Heidelberg area is a hotspot and due care should be taken.”