LS member and U.S. Photographer Hurt in South Africa

U.S. Photographer Hurt in South Africa
By Associated Press

June 9, 2007, 8:04 PM EDT

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa—A U.S. photographer for National Geographic was fighting for his life on Saturday after a chunk of concrete smashed through the windshield of his car and hit him in the head near a poor South African township, local newspapers reported.

Bobby Model, 34, was on life support in a Cape Town hospital, the reports said. He was in a car driven by his sister when he was struck Thursday afternoon near the Monwabisi resort, which is close to Khayelitsha, one of Cape Town’s many sprawling poor townships, the papers said. His sister Faith, 32, was not hurt.

Many parts of Cape Town’s busy highways have become notorious over the past few years for spates of stone-throwing—attacks with seemingly no clear purpose. Last year, a man was killed after a brick was hurled through his windshield.

It was not immediately clear whether anyone threw the object that struck Model. But police opened an investigation for attempted murder.

Model, of Cody, Wyo. was in South Africa on vacation. A contributor for National Geographic Adventure Magazine, he lives in Kenya and had worked in several war zones, including Sudan. He is also an avid rock climber.

His sister’s partner, Hans Pieter Bakker, said the siblings had been driving a pickup when it was hit by “a chunk of concrete about the size of a melon,” Pretoria News reported.

Susan Muller, spokeswoman for Vergelegen Medi-Clinic, said Model was in the intensive care unit.

“He is in critical condition. His sister has been at his bedside. I cannot tell you more than that,” newspaper Cape Argus quoted her as saying.

Police could not be reached for comment Saturday evening and calls to National Geographic were not immediately returned.

Last year, Model was named by the National Geographic Society as one of its “emerging explorers,” an honor extended each year to “dynamic personalities who are making a significant contribution to world knowledge through exploration.”

A 1997 graduate of the University of Wyoming, Model began rock climbing as a young teenager.

He was part of a Wyoming team that completed the first free ascent of the East Face of Pakistan’s Trango Tower. The team included Todd Skinner, the renowned rock climber killed in October when he fell 500 feet while rappelling on Leaning Tower in Yosemite National Park.

Model appeared on the cover of National Geographic when the magazine published an account of that expedition.

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world, with about 50 people killed each day. The government is desperate to counter the country’s violent image, especially in the run up to the soccer World Cup it will host in 2010.

by Art Rothfuss I I I at Mon Jun 11 00:14:52 UTC 2007 (ed. Jun 11 2007) Rochester, NY, United States | Bookmark this | Digg this |