Family’s grief after horror N1 crash
Grieving family recall their shock when they realised their loved ones were victims of a horror crash that went viral
IT DIDN’T take long for pictures of the car crushed by the weight of a shipping container to go viral. It was a horrific sight, the vehicle flattened to such an extent it was almost impossible to see what model car it was. Most people could look at the picture with a sense of detachment – a feeling of relief it wasn’t them or anyone they knew in that car.
But when Stefanus Brits was sent the photo via WhatsApp he went cold. He recognised the car, a white Ford Escort, and when he zoomed in to make sure, his worst fears were confirmed. It was his stepdad’s car. Looking at the picture, he knew there was no chance anyone inside the vehicle had survived. “And that meant my brother was also lying dead under that truck.”
Meanwhile Stefanus’ mother, Myrtle Ryke (48), had also seen the photo. She sent it to her ex-husband, Nico Snr (56), in a message that would see his world come crashing down.
“This is the WhatsApp I got from Myrtle,” Nico Snr says, holding up his phone to show the gruesome photo.
“Nico is in that car with my husband,” Myrtle wrote in her WhatsApp message. “I totally cracked,” Nico Snr says. His son, Nicholaas “Nico” Brits (28), and Myrtle’s second husband, Alan Ryke (43), were crushed in the horror accident on the N1 leading into Cape Town on a sunny Wednesday morning. Traffic into the city was backed up for hours as authorities worked at the harrowing scene.
Emergency services said Alan and his flame-haired stepson died from multiple injuries after being crushed by the weight of the shipping container which landed on the car when the truck carrying it overturned.
Stefanus, Myrtle and her daughter, Nicolene (29), went to view the wreck.
“Luckily we couldn’t see blood or any sign of suffering,” a heartbroken Myrtle says, speaking to us at her home in Bellville, Cape Town.
“So many people called that day to make sure the picture wasn’t just an internet hoax.
“I’ll never forget seeing a picture on the front page of the newspapers with Nico’s size 13 takkies sticking out under the blanket. He was a tall guy. His coffin needed to be lengthened . . .”
Her phone has been ringing nonstop since the accident with requests from lawyers wanting to take her case and make sure she gets as much money as
possible from the Road Accident Fund.
But right now all she wants is to find a way to pick up the pieces and carry on.
NICO Snr didn’t want to see the carnage and was grateful he wasn’t the one who had to identify the bodies. The devastated dad, who works in construction, arrived in Cape Town from Joburg late on the night before our interview.
“Every night when I go to bed I see that photo of the accident in my mind. I want to remember my son like this,” Nico Snr says, showing us a photo of a freckle-faced five-year-old boy.
He fights back tears. He doesn’t like to cry in front of people, he says, but sometimes can’t help it.
“This is my son. The helpful and loving guy who would always give money and time to people, not the one who died under that container.”
He hopes neither his son nor his son’s stepfather suffered or even knew they’d been in such a horrific crash. “Touch wood. It’s just too terrible to consider.”
Nico Snr and Myrtle separated seven years ago and divorced four years after that but the family have remained close. The last time they were all together was over the Easter weekend when Nicolene married Daniel Beveridge on 15 April.
Nicolene is pregnant and due to give birth in February.
“Nico and Alan were so excited to meet the baby,” Nicolene says, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Now this little one will never meet Oupa Alan or Uncle Nico.”
She has a two-year-old son, Michael, who saw the photo of the accident on her cellphone. “Oupa’s car is flat,” he told her, and she had to explain they would never see his granddad or uncle again.
For Stefanus, the grief at the loss of his big brother and stepfather is compounded by the awful reality that he could’ve been in that car too.
Alan had his own electrical business and the two brothers often worked with him. He and Nico were on their way to do some electrical work for a regular client of Alan’s in Camps Bay.
“I’d driven past the accident scene two days later on a bus from Vredenburg . . .” Stefanus says. “I could’ve been in the car with them because I went along on jobs often.”
MYRTLE and Alan had been married for only 13 months before the fatal crash. “When he died he was wearing the same black jeans he wore to our wedding,” she says. It was Alan’s first marriage and he loved Myrtle’s kids as if they were his own. He also adored Snuffels, the couple’s Yorkie, which has been in mourning since the crash, Myrtle says.
“My Alan, my Oros Man loved to cook, especially pasta with sauce and garlic,” she adds.
Nico, whom Myrtle calls her “angel child”, was a sought-after model at a Bellville modelling agency. She’s grateful for their big family dinner together on the Sunday before the accident and will cherish the memories of a happy evening.
Alan and Nico’s memorial service was held at the Biker Church in the Okavango Centre in Bellville – the same church where Alan and Myrtle were married.
Alan used to ride a motorbike and was a member of the Storm Chasers and later the Easy Riders motorbike clubs. Although he’d sold his bike before they met, he and Myrtle still attended biker rallies and planned to go to one in Worcester in November.
“They still want me there,” she says. “I’ll go in memory of Alan.”
Police are conducting an investigation into the crash and there have been calls from the public to ban trucks carrying containers on that stretch of the highway as it’s a notorious area for accidents.
Jet Peters, co-owner of the company that owns the truck involved in the accident, wants authorities to examine CCTV footage on the N1 at the Koeberg interchange so they can get to the bottom of what happened. Meanwhile he’s had the container weighed to ensure it didn’t exceed the recommended weight, which it didn’t, he says.
‘When he died he was wearing the same black jeans he wore to our wedding.’