An international adventure photographer, who has survived
working in war zones, is fighting for his life after his vehicle was hit by a rock in Cape Town, local newspapers reported.
United States citizen Bobby Model (34) who was visiting Cape Town from Kenya where he is based, was in a critical condition on life support in hospital, the newspapers said on Saturday.
Last year Model was named by the National Geographic Society as one of its ”emerging explorers,” an honour extended each year to ”dynamic personalities who are making a significant contribution to world knowledge through exploration”.
Model, who was from Cody, Wyoming, was being driven by his sister Faith (32) when their vehicle was hit on Thursday afternoon near the Monwabisi resort, close to Khayelitsha.
Newspapers reported Faith’s partner, South African Hans Pieter Bakker, as saying that the pair had been driving his pickup, when it was hit by ”a chunk of concrete about the size of a melon”.
The rock smashed through the windscreen and hit Model’s head.
His sister was not hurt.
According to one newspaper report, Susan Muller, spokesperson for Vergelegen Medi-Clinic, said Model was in the intensive care unit.
”He is in critical condition. His sister has been at his bedside. I cannot tell you more than that.”
Neither Muller nor police could not be reached for comment on Saturday evening.
Model had been in Cape Town for two days and was due to have left for Johannesburg on Friday.
Bakker said Model was in South Africa for a break. This was his first visit to Cape Town.
Earlier reports quoted police confirming the incident and said a case of attempted murder had been opened.
Many parts of Cape Town’s busy highways have become notorious after spates of stone-throwing. Last year a man was killed after a brick was hurled through his windscreen.
A 1997 graduate of the University of Wyoming, Model began rock climbing as a young teenager. ‒ Sapa-AP