War hero flattened by golf cart

NINETY-YEAR-OLD Robin “Pinkey” Yeats, a World War 2 veteran, is recovering in the intensive care unit of a Pietermaritzburg hospital after being run over by a golf cart.

The war hero who had previously survived being shot down by the Luftwaffe, was flattened by the runaway golf cart at the Victoria Country Club on Saturday as he lined up to play a shot out of the ninth hole bunker.

Apparently

Yeats

was preparing to take his shot when another golfer accidentally slammed into Yeat’s stationary golf cart, causing it to roll down the hill towards the unsuspecting Yeats.

The cart struck Yeats and rolled over him.

The elderly “livewire”, as he was described by fellow golfers, suffered a broken leg and fractured pelvis.

He was operated on successfully and is recovering well, according to his son, John.

“My dad is a tough guy. We expect he will come out of this okay,” he said.

John, said his father had escaped many dangerous situations.

In 1941, Yeats, an airman, was shot down by German war planes while protecting ship convoys.

He suffered severe burns and was forced to eject from his plane and bailed into the sea.

He was off active duty for a year to recover from his injuries.

This is the latest accident involving a golf cart in the past few months.

In December a visitor to the Pretoria Zoo was run over by a motorised golf cart and seriously injured.

And in November Western Cape High Court Deputy Judge President Jeanette Traverso was admitted to intensive care after fracturing several bones from her pelvis to her shoulder, and sustaining various internal injuries, including a punctured lung after being run over while playing a round of golf.

The golf cart was driven by Acting Judge Robert McDougall.