Dippenaar 'was responsible'
Dippenaar 'was responsible'

Dippenaar 'was responsible'

An accident analyst has testified that Jandré Dippenaar drove at nearly 150 kilometres an hour before slamming into an oncoming bakkie, killing six people.
Staff Reporter
The horrific accident of 29 December 2014 near Henties Bay, which claimed six lives, was “caused by the driver of the Toyota FJ Cruiser”.

This incriminating statement against Jandré Dippenaar was made by accident expert Johan Joubert yesterday as the high-profile murder trial continued in the Regional Court at Swakopmund.

Joubert came to the conclusion that Dippenaar's “negligent driving” was responsible for the collision. This statement is included in Joubert's more than 100-page accident report in which he examined and checked every single detail of the collision. He did not only consider the physical evidence, but also the testimony of several witnesses.

“It's clear that the FJ Cruiser was driven at excessive speed, overtook three vehicles on a hill at a blind spot,” said Joubert.

The day before, Joubert had testified in court that he had calculated the speed of the FJ Cruiser at 147.6 km/h before the collision, while a maximum speed of 100 km/h is allowed on the salt road between Swakopmund and Henties Bay. The speed of the oncoming Ford Ranger was determined to have been 85 km/h. This figure Joubert acquired from the car's built-in GPS device.

Joubert's accident report serves as the decisive piece of evidence for the prosecution. Several witnesses have testified in the case, and most of them described Dippenaar's driving as reckless and too fast.

“From the above it is clear that the cause of the accident was in fact the reckless driving behaviour of the driver of the Toyota FJ Cruiser, Mr Jandre Dippenaar, that his reckless overtaking of three vehicles on a blind rise forced the driver of the Ford Ranger to take evasive action and as a result thereof ended up on the incorrect side (the right side of the road for vehicles travelling towards Swakopmund)”, Joubert wrote in his conclusion.

“The reckless driving behaviour of Mr Jandre Dippenaar evidently led to the death of six persons with the only surviving persons from this accident being Mr Jandre Dippenaar and Ms Antonia Joschko (sic).”

Joubert repeated his statement from the previous day that the driver of the Ford Ranger “had no other option than to swerve to the right in an attempt to avoid collision with the FJ Cruiser, as his lane was blocked by the approaching FJ Cruiser.”

Joubert's report includes several drawings of the accident scene. Dippenaar's lawyer, Louis Botes, requested a digital copy of these drawings for the defence to analyse.

“These printed drawings (A3 format) are so small that we have to play with a ruler to make our calculations. And they cannot be accurate,” said Botes.

Joubert refused to release this data and argued that the defence had appointed their own experts, who also made drawings.

Magistrate Gaynor Poulton ruled that Joubert was not required to release the files to the defence, but should print the drawings in a larger format.

The trial continues today.



ERWIN LEUSCHNER

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Namibian Sun 2024-03-28

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Katima Mulilo: 19° | 37° Rundu: 17° | 33° Eenhana: 18° | 33° Oshakati: 20° | 31° Ruacana: 19° | 33° Tsumeb: 17° | 29° Otjiwarongo: 16° | 28° Omaruru: 18° | 31° Windhoek: 17° | 28° Gobabis: 17° | 28° Henties Bay: 16° | 19° Wind speed: 24km/h, Wind direction: S, Low tide: 10:54, High tide: 04:57, Low Tide: 22:58, High tide: 17:16 Swakopmund: 15° | 17° Wind speed: 29km/h, Wind direction: SW, Low tide: 10:52, High tide: 04:55, Low Tide: 22:56, High tide: 17:14 Walvis Bay: 16° | 22° Wind speed: 33km/h, Wind direction: SW, Low tide: 10:52, High tide: 04:54, Low Tide: 22:56, High tide: 17:13 Rehoboth: 18° | 29° Mariental: 22° | 32° Keetmanshoop: 21° | 34° Aranos: 21° | 31° Lüderitz: 15° | 29° Ariamsvlei: 23° | 34° Oranjemund: 15° | 21° Luanda: 27° | 30° Gaborone: 20° | 32° Lubumbashi: 17° | 24° Mbabane: 15° | 23° Maseru: 12° | 28° Antananarivo: 16° | 27° Lilongwe: 17° | 29° Maputo: 20° | 28° Windhoek: 17° | 28° Cape Town: 17° | 23° Durban: 21° | 25° Johannesburg: 18° | 28° Dar es Salaam: 26° | 32° Lusaka: 18° | 30° Harare: 15° | 31° Currency: GBP to NAD 23.96 | EUR to NAD 20.53 | CNY to NAD 2.63 | USD to NAD 19.03 | DZD to NAD 0.14 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.33 | EGP to NAD 0.39 | KES to NAD 0.14 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.74 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3.8 | RUB to NAD 0.2 | INR to NAD 0.23 | USD to DZD 134.35 | USD to AOA 832.63 | USD to BWP 13.71 | USD to EGP 47.3 | USD to KES 130.98 | USD to NGN 1415.13 | USD to ZAR 19.02 | USD to ZMW 24.97 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index 73909.5 Up +0.41% | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1516.02 Down -0.13% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 12981.98 Up +0.34% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 28224.37 Down -2.87% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - 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Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 212.07/OZ UP +0.97% | Copper US$ 3.98/lb DOWN -0.0008 | Zinc US$ 2 446.40/T DOWN -0.41% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 86.78/BBP UP +0.45% | Platinum US$ 898.23/OZ UP +0.37%