How rescuers brought a trapped man down from a Durban bridge
A man trapped high above Durban’s Umgeni River sparked a complex rescue operation. The story is revisited in Episode 2 of the SA Rescue podcast.
A dramatic rescue that unfolded on Durban’s Connaught Bridge several years ago is being revisited in the latest episode of the podcast SA Rescue: Out Alive.
The series, produced by Jacaranda FM’s sister station East Coast Radio, tells real stories of rescue operations and the first responders who step in when lives are at risk.
Episode two takes listeners back to an autumn afternoon in 2017. A fisherman paddling along the Umgeni River heard shouting from above. Looking up, he realised the voice was coming from high on Connaught Bridge.
A man had become trapped in the steel structure beneath the bridge, roughly 30 metres above the river and near the middle of one of the bridge pillars. He had apparently been stranded there for days.
Emergency teams quickly began assembling at the scene.
Newswatch reporter Nushera Soodyal was among the first journalists to arrive.
I could already see what the rescue personnel were planning on doing, and it was daring,
Two rescuers, Warrant Officer Clinton Odayar and rescue official Paul Herbst, were tasked with reaching the stranded man and helping him safely off the bridge.
Kelsey-Jae Meyrick of IPSS Medical Rescue says operations like this require careful planning.
“You always need to take into account that rescues don’t always go according to plan,” she said.
Listen to the full story in Episode 2 of SA Rescue: Out Alive, embedded below.
In tribute to rescue officer Paul Herbst
Episode two is dedicated to the memory of rescue officer Paul Herbst, who passed away in 2023.
Herbst was part of the Connaught Bridge rescue and was widely respected for his commitment to helping others.
Over the years he took part in numerous rescue missions, responding to emergencies in South Africa and internationally.
Just days before his passing, he returned from Türkiye, where he and a team of South African rescuers helped search for survivors after a devastating earthquake.
Meanwhile in Episode 1
The first episode of the series tells the story of a mountain rescue near the KwaZulu-Natal border.
Two climbers were descending from a summit when severe weather rolled in and their ropes jammed. With darkness approaching and temperatures dropping, rescuers had to climb up through a violent electrical storm to reach them.
That dramatic operation forms the opening chapter of SA Rescue: Out Alive, setting the tone for a podcast series dedicated to the people who respond when every second counts.