/ 19 September 2001

FIVE-YEAR-OLD TOSSED FROM BAKKIE

A 33-YEAR old Sasolburg woman was arrested on Tuesday after she apparently thrown her five-year old daughter from a moving bakkie near Reitz, eastern Free State police said. Captain Veronica Ntepe said the driver of the bakkie was travelling between Reitz and Petrus Steyn around 10.30am on Tuesday when he saw the woman hitch-hiking with her three children. He stopped to offer her a lift. After having driven for about 12 kilometres, the driver looked in the rearview mirror and saw the woman throwing one of the children from the bakkie. He stopped and alerted the police. The little girl who was thrown from the bakkie was taken to the Reitz Provincial Hospital with head injuries. It was not known how seriously she was hurt. Ntepe said when the police investigated the incident, they found that the three children, the girl and two boys, were triplets. The woman would appear in court soon on a charge of attempted murder. – Sapa