A Durban trucking company has come out to explain events that led to a white male trucker being filmed naked in his truck saying the man was highly intoxicated.
The company, which SA Trucker will not mention to protect the dignity of the victim, says that the man in the video was highly intoxicated and way out of control.
The company said it was investigating how the video leaked to the public, saying that it was meant to be evidence against the intoxicated truck driver.
“We would like to state on record, that this video has been posted out of context and has been edited to portray false information. We are investigating this matter internally to ascertain how internal footage was leaked,” read an unsigned statement sent to SA Trucker.
“The portion of the video that was shared was the reaction of the staff members who did not expect to see him in that state . This video was meant for internal purposes and we are trying to investigate who shared it.”
The statement further states that:
“On Wednesday, 20.04.2022 at 01.30am, the vehicle was found between Prince Albert and Laingsburg abandoned. The controller tried to contact the driver but his phone was switched off. We attempted to contact SAPS of Prince Albert and Laingsburg but to no avail. Two of our vehicles were on the same route and the controller contacted them to make their way to the abandoned vehicle as the vehicle was left in a secluded location and was loaded with contents of approximately 4 million rand.
There was also a live cat which was locked in the vehicle for more than 48 hours. Due to not having keys to access the vehicle, arrangements had to be made for the spare key to be taken from Durban in order to access the vehicle, hence we had 3 vehicles parked with the abandoned vehicle as the driver was AWOL.
Approximately at 04.30am, one of the drivers noticed the driver in question not far from the vehicle, running around naked. When he tried to approach him, he ran into the nearby bushes.
A while later, drivers managed to find him on the N1 along with his items as per the photo attached.
The other driver then took him back to the abandoned vehicle as he was still under the influence of substance. Photos attached.
It would have been easy for us as a company to make arrangements to get our vehicle, even though the driver self-endangered himself, however we ensured that he was also safe despite him putting our company at risk by deserting a fully loaded vehicle with a high content value.
It has cost our company time and money for us to ensure the safety of our vehicle as well as the driver in question. We have had standing time for 3 drivers who were waiting with the abandoned vehicle.
The camera in the vehicle had to be kept on due to company property being at risk and we had to ensure that the vehicle was safe from endangerment and theft.
Cameras are there for security measures and not for malicious intent, and the staff had to monitor the vehicle, they did not anticipate that the driver would expose himself as he did which resulted in their reaction.
The drivers family was contacted to assure them that he was safe and they made arrangements to fetch him.
The video caused a major uproar from fellow truck drivers who felt that the trucker’s privacy was grossly violated.
