Tourist nearly topped by windblown brolly
By Karyn Maughan

A Christmas Day celebration nearly ended in death when a strong southeaster lifted a heavy wooden umbrella off a second-floor balcony in Camps Bay and slammed it into the back of a British tourist at a restaurant below.

The heavy umbrella and its concrete base left Andrew Smith, a property developer from Surrey, with head injuries and several broken bones.

The concrete base also hit his friend Angie Dawson, leaving her with a severely bruised back.

Smith was enjoying a lunchtime drink with family and friends at the Out of Asia cafe in Camps Bay on Christmas Day, when a wooden umbrella fell two storeys from the upstairs Vilamoura restaurant and hit him on his head, shoulders and back.

On Friday Smith spoke to the Weekend Argus from the Cape Town Medi-Clinic where he has spent three days being treated for his injuries.

"I honestly thought I had been shot. There was blood running from the back of my head and I felt excruciating pain in my back. I am a pretty tough guy, but I was crying like a baby," Smith said.

The skin covering the back of his skull was split open by the blow and he suffered three fractured ribs and three fractures along his back, which doctors say will take at least six weeks to heal. But, as Smith himself acknowledges, he was "incredibly lucky".

"I was leaning forward to take a sip of my drink when the accident happened, so my back received more of the blow than my head did.

"If the umbrella had hit my head, I don't think I would have survived," added Smith.

The umbrella's concrete base just missed Smith's head and scraped the back of his business partner's wife, Angie Dawson, leaving her with bad bruising.

Smith's seven-year-old daughter Phoebe was sitting on his lap and "slipped off" just moments before the accident occurred, he said.

According to Smith's wife Sue, the little girl was "absolutely devastated" by what happened to her father.

"She's incredibly upset by what happened. I think it's shocking that the umbrella was not securely chained to the ground, especially on such a windy day. It's like playing Russian roulette with people's lives."

Both Smith and his wife were full of praise for the Camp's Bay Medics, a volunteer organisation operated by the Camps Bay police forum, for their quick and "brilliant" medical service.

"They came in about five to 10 minutes and they were absolutely superb - we would never have got such good service in the UK," Smith said.

Smith and his wife have been staying in Camps Bay with his business partner Mike Dawson and his family for the last three weeks and hope to leave for the UK on Monday.

Vilamoura manager JP Clark described the umbrella's fall as an "absolute freak accident" and said nothing like it had occurred during his time at the restaurant.

He said the umbrella had been securely tied to the restaurant's upper railing and he could not explain how it had managed to fall on Smith.