ANC-police intervenes with paramedics who try to save accident-victims whenever a policeman is involved: charge laid by paramedic Henrico Duarte, Bloemfontein
12:36 Jan 9 2014 Bloemfontein, South Africa
Description
While qualified paramedics struggled to save three lives at an accident scene, a SA police officer threatens to arrest them for 'intervening in a crime scene.' Journalist Pieter Steyn quotes ER24 paramedic Henrico Duarte, who tells him that cops from the Bloemspruit SAPS in Bloemfontein threatened him and other emergency personnel while they tried to save lives. One of the victims of the crash is a police officer from De Wets dorp. The odd incident happened on New Year's Eve day at around 09h00 about 40km from Bloemfontein on the road to De Wetsdorp, he said. "I was stabilising one of the traffic accident victims, the other paramedics were cutting a wreck open to free another victim, when this cop showed off, chased us off and threatened us. The cop said that since 'one of the accident victims is a cop, it is a 'protected crime scene and we are messing up his crime crime by trying to save them'. Duarte said the victims around this wreck were critically injured. He told the policeman that he was trying to save their lives, that he was stabilising them and that he could not leave the scene. "The cop was very aggressive and kept threatening to arrest us,' he said. The victims in the wreck were police officer Salmon Molemi, 25 and his girl-friend Kamohelo Chabeli, 16, who were travelling between De Wetsdorp and Bloemfontein in his private vehicle. He had just gotten off working night shift. Molema's vehicle crashed head-on against the vehicle of a fifty-one year old couple, Roelof and Karin Engelbrecht of Langenhovenpark. While the teen girl was 'slightly injured', police officer Molema and the Engelbrecht couple are in critical condition and now in the intensive care units of several Bloemfontein hospitals, wrote Steyn. Life Rosepark Hospital spokeswoman Esmarie Cronjé said the Engelbrecht couple's condition is 'serious' but now stabilised: both sustained 'very bad leg injuries'. And Mediclinic Bloemfontein spokeswoman Reinette Oosthuizen said the police officer, Molema, is now 'stable'. , SAPS chief of the Free State publicity-department, brig. Billy Jones, did not react to a request to comment by the newspaper journalist. However, paramedic Duarte's version of events was confirmed by other emergency-service workers. One - who is terrified of victimization and did not want to be identified - said 'this happens often at accident scenes where police-officers are involved. They want to protect each other and we believe that they want to remove evidence which could be used against their colleagues. Vehicles where police officers were involved in traffic accidents also cannot just be towed away by private towing services. The police always insist on towing away such vehicles themselves'. Duarte said the aggressive behaviour by the police officer in the Engelbrecht/Molema traffic accident, and the threats against him, have definitely interveneed in his ability to assist the survivors of that crash. "Throughout that time when that cop was threatening and harassing me, I could not give my full attention to my patients. Fortunately we were able to stabilise them all. People's lives always come first,' he said.The accident itself was confirmed by constable Maselela Langa of the Bloemfontein SAPS - who said a formal complaint of attempted culplible homicide is being investigated. (volksblad.com)
News Source Link
http://www.volksblad.com/nuus/2014-01-08-paramedici-glo-gedreigRead more at http://www.censorbugbear.org/farmitracker/reports/view/2015#5CPjuQhYOesSU5er.99
