A South African removal driver had a miracle escape after the brakes of his pick-up truck failed, sending it plunging over a cliff.
Dramatic CCTV footage shows Courage Ncube, 34, heading down the steep road in his loaded Toyota with two colleagues standing in the back when suddenly he couldn’t stop.
The brake pedal in his truck just slammed straight down to the floor as the Toyota suddenly sped forward at a terrifying rate towards a tight 45-degree right hand bend.
Both men on the back screamed and leapt off but as dramatic security footage shows Courage had no choice but to hang onto the steering wheel.
The Toyota slammed into a solid stone wall at 50mph after it accelerated out of control for 30 metres downhill, bursting through dozens of cemented rock boulders.
The rollercoaster ride continued as Courage stared down through the windscreen at the fast-approaching tarmac as the truck pile-drived bonnet first into it.
The freefalling truck somersaulted onto its roof before the force of the impact flipped it another 180 degrees, landing back upright on its wheels.
But the most remarkable moment came seconds later.
The driver’s side door swings open almost immediately and removal man Courage steps out to survey the debris surrounding his written-off pick-up – without a single scratch.
A South African removal driver had a miracle escape as this incredible CCTV shows when the brakes of his pick-up truck failed and he plunged over a cliff
Courage Ncube, 34, was heading down the super steep road in his loaded Toyota with two colleagues standing in the back when suddenly he couldn’t stop. Pictured: Here he is seen exiting the vehicle after the crash
The CCTV footage has gone viral following the accident on Sunday at 6.30pm at the tiny hamlet of Misty Cliffs on the Cape Peninsula 25 miles south of Cape Town
Miraculously he survived without so much as a broken bone or a bleeding wound and instead was left wondering just how he will explain to his client where his things were.
Also incredibly lucky was the driver of a Toyota Corolla which is seen passing straight beneath where the pick-up crash-landed just four seconds earlier.
If it had landed on top of it those inside would have likely been dead.
The CCTV footage has gone viral following the accident on Sunday at 6.30pm in the tiny hamlet of Misty Cliffs on the Cape Peninsula 25 miles south of Cape Town.
Badly shaken Courage said: ‘I was doing my job to help my boss move a man from his old house to his new house and the road down from it was very steep indeed.
‘It is a very dangerous mountain and then I just lost my brakes and I just went down fast and I fell over the mountain side to the tarmac but thanks to God I am alive.
‘I am a hard-working man and that pick-up truck was my only way to earn a living. It is now for the scrap yard but it is my blessing that I still have my life’ he said.
Misty Cliffs Village Association treasurer Jon Kerr said that the residents all felt very sorry for Courage and had agreed to set up a BackaBuddy fund to replace his old truck.
Retired Jon, 66, said: ‘From the video you can see that Courage had a very lucky escape and it is a miracle he was not very seriously hurt or even worse but somehow he survived it.
‘If we can help him get another pick-up truck and get him back out on the road and working then that would be wonderful and we hope that others out there will chip in.
‘Nobody has been talking about anything else in Misty Cliffs since it happened’ he said.
The huge gap left in the rock boulder wall on the sharp bend at the bottom of Old Camp Road down to the Main Road has been filled with sand bags pending a full repair.
A South African Police spokesman said: ‘It was no more than an accident so there is no action to be taken but it was very lucky that neither the driver or anyone else was killed.
‘The Cape Peninsula is very mountainous and it is important that everyone driving along it has good brakes’ he said.
