Rush-hour commuters endured significant delays after all southbound motorway lanes were closed during a serious incident near the Penrose Rd overbridge last Tuesday evening.
SRL Cargo truck driver Prabhjot Singh said traffic on the southern motorway began to get “pretty heavy” about 4.15pm and he was travelling about 60km/h.
“I passed the Ellerslie on-ramp and saw some police cars behind me with their sirens on and then saw a sign on the Penrose Rd overbridge which said there was a pedestrian on the motorway and to be careful.”
But just before Singh passed beneath, he saw a woman hanging onto the bridge who was about to fall.
“I couldn’t see her from far away because some bushes were blocking where she was.”
Singh slammed on the brakes and came to a stop under the Penrose Rd overbridge. The woman had fallen by the time the truck stopped and she became stuck between the bridge and container before falling onto the motorway.
The actions of Auckland truck driver Prabhjot Singh helped save the life of a woman who fell from a Southern Motorway overbridge, causing a mass motorway closure.
“If I had not looked in my mirrors and seen the police cars or the woman, I would have been going 60km/h and she would have been chopped into pieces.”
He said police rushed to the woman and started performing CPR.
“They told me I had done a good job and saved her life... the only thing I wanted to know is if she would survive.”
Singh — who has more than seven years’ experience as a truck driver — said the terrifying incident had left him shaken for hours.
“I’ve seen some bad things in my life, but in that moment I was shaken.”
He returned to work the next day because he was afraid to stay at home and replay this incident over in his head.
A video was posted to TikTok after the incident, showing Singh’s truck stopped under the overbridge with a line of gridlocked traffic behind it and emergency services blocking the motorway.
People watching the video speculated that the truck had collided with the overbridge and become stuck.
Singh could briefly be seen in the video, leading to relentless racist comments being directed at him.
“Somebody sent me the video and I had a look at the comments. A few people knew what had happened but most people didn’t,” he said.
Singh says he was subject to racist comments after a video of his truck under the overbridge was posted to social media.
Asked about the hateful comments, Singh said; “The thing is everyone does it, so if I keep thinking about that I’m not going to get very far.
“We go under that bridge every day... they don’t know what actually happened, but I do.”
A spokesman for SRL Cargo said the company fielded several calls from customers concerned the truck may have collided with the bridge and caused the motorway closure, which was not the case.
“We had a few customers call that day to make sure we didn’t hit the bridge and when they found out the story was, it wasn’t an issue.”
The spokesman said Singh’s slowing down saved the woman’s life.
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said all State Highway 1 lanes were initially closed between Ellerslie Panmure Highway and South Eastern Highway “due to a serious incident”.
At one point, Google Maps showed traffic was heavily congested with southbound tailbacks snaking past Spaghetti Junction towards the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
