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Keeping your calm whilst under fire from would-be hijackers takes nerves of steel, which is something Leo Prinsloo possesses in abundance.

You’ll recall Prinsloo and his colleague, Lloyd Mtombeni, managed to avoid becoming another cash-in-transit heist statistic back in April, and follow-up footage showed they were actually chasing the attackers.

In the case of Norman Nukeri, who was behind the wheel of a bakkie driving through the Klaserie Nature Reserve in the Limpopo Province on June 1, fighting back was not an option.

Nukeri, from Bosbok Gas & Smeermiddels, was pulling a trailer full of fuel, which made manoeuvring rather difficult.

You might recall this footage, which was widely shared last week:

A few pictures of the vehicle, before we look at how Nukeri handled the situation.

Image: Facebook / Geert de Jong

Image: Facebook / Charmaine Adam

Whilst many would have panicked in the situation, Nukeri managed to think clearly, acting in a way that didn’t further aggravate the elephant.

As we can see from the combined footage below, he held it together very well under the circumstances:

According to The South African, Nukeri is back at work, and isn’t keen to speak to the media.

Nathan Traut, the Marketing Operations Manager for Bosbok Gas & Smeermiddels, did chat with Far North Bulletin about the encounter.

He said that Nukeri, who is from the area, is well-versed in elephant encounters, and knows to give them a wide birth when they’re in the company of their calves:

The elephant cow and her young crossed the dirt road and disappeared into the bush. Suddenly to the left of the vehicle a large bull appeared from the bush and charged the bakkie. Norman banged on the side of his vehicle in an attempt to frighten the elephant away. The noise seemed to work and the bull stopped in its tracks a few metres from the bakkie. It turned to the side and walked off into the bush.

Suddenly the animal made an about turn and charged full speed at the vehicle once again. This time however, Norman’s banging on the side of his bakkie did little to deter the bull who lowered its head and rammed full force into the front of the vehicle completely destroying the bonnet and damaging the front bumper and grill.

The damage was estimated at around R50 000, but the vehicle was mechanically sound and able to drive.

All in all, considering what could have gone wrong, Nukeri deserves credit for how he handled the situation.

I’d take a rampaging bull over bullets flying during a cash-in-transit heist any day of the week.

[sources:southafrican&farnorthbulletin]