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Roxanne Bawden, 52, was running on the corner of Waterkant Road and Helms Park between 6.15am and 6.30am when she was struck by a car<\/p>\n
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A Durban North woman is still fighting for her life after being hit by an allegedly drunk driver while out jogging on Saturday morning. <\/p>\n
Roxanne Bawden, 52, was running on the corner of Waterkant Road and Helm\u2019s Park between 6.15am and 6.30am when she was struck by a car. When the vehicle eventually came to rest, it pinned her up against a wall. <\/p>\n
Gathered at a small coffee-table in Umhlanga Hospital\u2019s reception area, her friends told of the countless messages of support they had received when the news of Bawden\u2019s accident had broken. <\/p>\n
Bawden, who was still in ICU, was a member of Regent Harriers \u2013 an informal running group in the Durban North area \u2013 and was well liked by all the runners who knew her, they said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are devastated. We are all very close; it is like it has happened to a member of our family,\u201d said one of them, Sandy Joubert. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe call her bossy Roxy,\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cShe would decide when and where we would be running.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Saturday, however, Bawden messaged Debbie Fouche, another friend and runner, to say that she would not be joining them that morning. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe messaged at five to five and told me she would be running a shorter distance by herself, as she had a cough.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bawden\u2019s alternative route would then become the scene of the devastating accident. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s the runner who will encourage you if you were stuck at the bottom of a hill, said Fouche, emphasising the kind and caring nature that Bawden possessed. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have run seven Comrades together. Next year was going to be her 10th consecutive Comrades.\u201d <\/p>\n
The driver alleged to have crashed into Bawden is a 20-year-old man, who was arrested for reckless and negligent driving and for driving under the influence of alcohol, according to police spokesman Jay Naicker. <\/p>\n
Joubert said that all the runners in their group were vigilant about cars, and that they always wore reflective and high-visibility clothing. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe [Bawden] is a seasoned runner and is well aware of the rules of the road,\u201d said Joubert. <\/p>\n
It was less than two years ago that a similar accident happened in Oudtshoorn, when Sanet Wentzel was hit by a drunk driver while out running early on a Saturday morning. Wentzel, however, was declared dead at the scene. <\/p>\n
In memory of the runner, the Wentzel Memorial Wo-men\u2019s Day Challenge is run in August each year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roxanne Bawden, 52, was running on the corner of Waterkant Road and Helms Park between 6.15am and 6.30am when she was struck by a car A Durban North woman is still fighting for her life after being hit by an allegedly drunk driver while out jogging on Saturday morning. Roxanne Bawden, 52, was running on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-14969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}