Slow down: Speeding can change lives in a fraction of a second
Approaching the scene, I see that there is a crowd of people on the footpath gathered around a dark blue sedan that’s resting against a power pole. An older teenage boy is pacing back and forth behind the group, holding his head in both hands, looking upward and screaming randomly at the sky. He is frantic, not agitated, but emotional. He sits in the gutter momentarily before getting up and pacing again.
He sees us arrive; lights flashing, siren blaring. As we run towards them, he shouts a single expletive before breaking down.
People in the crowd begin yelling to us and pointing to the passenger side of the car that is still angled against the pole. The crowd makes room for us, and that’s when I see him.
Another teenage boy is still in the front passenger seat. He is staring straight ahead and isn’t moving. We are only able to partially pry open the door due to the damage, and then I see him blink. He calmly turns his head slightly and looks directly at me. His eyes are wide and his face is ashen. He is severely injured and shock has set in. An ambulance has already arrived and they take over his care.
I speak to the pacing teen and ascertain that he was the driver of the car when it crashed, and the passenger is his best friend from school where they are in year 12.
He knows they were going a bit quick and estimates around 15 to 20 kilometers over the limit; maybe this is right, maybe it’s not. He missed the right hand bend in the road; he only saw the curve at the last second. Short, fresh, blackened tyre marks directly behind the car attest to that.
His car collided with the power pole, striking on the passenger side where his friend was seated, taking the entire impact of the sidewards crash. He looks back towards the car and yells a distraught apology. He asks, “Have I killed him? Did I kill him?”
Fire officers use the ‘jaws of life’ to cut open the vehicle and the attending ambulance officers motion for us to return and assist with extracting the injured passenger. Slowly and gently he is lifted from the front seat. It’s only then he starts screaming. His screams are blood-curdling and hush the group of bystanders instantly.
He is placed on the ambulance stretcher and I see his body extended for the first time. His left leg looks strange, unnatural. It takes me a moment to realise that his femur, the bone between his knee to hip, appears to have sustained significant trauma. His knee is now positioned half way to his hip.
The ambulance pulls away with its lights and sirens activated and transport him to hospital.
Your speeding has the potential to change lives in a fraction of a second. It may not be intentional, yet the effects can be felt for a lifetime. The passenger from this incident survived, however suffered permanent injuries to his left leg as a result of the crash.
August 22 to 28 is Queensland Road Safety Week. This week, make a conscious effort to focus on your own driving and amend your bad habits. If you regularly travel a few ks over, it’s time to change that habit. A few ks over easily leads to a few more ks over, and that can be deadly.
Don’t be mistaken thinking it won’t happen to you.
