Sometimes we see a story that needs to be reproduced in full, and Seamus Boyer's story in today's Dom-Post is one of those; here 'tis:
At first there was no pain. Lying on a gurney next to the wreck of an overturned car, Martinborough teenager Trevor Durry thought he had escaped the high-speed crash unscathed."I remember lying there before they put me into the ambulance, and people were saying 'Are you OK? Are you OK?' And I was saying, yeah I'm sweet, don't worry."But then the ambulance guys asked me if I could move my feet and I couldn't do it. From then I just had a gut feeling that I was never going to walk again."In October 2010, Trevor, then 17, had hopped into the back seat of a Subaru Legacy at Greytown's Kuranui College with three mates.The four drove off "to get a feed" in Greytown without permission before seeing another carload of students heading towards the long straight of Papawai Rd.The driver of the Subaru, Jayden Carter, followed the other car, passing it several times at up to 120kmh before losing control, sliding sideways and flipping into a roadside ditch."I remember us overtaking the other car, then sort of sliding," Trevor told The Dominion Post."And then there's a kind of faded vision of being upside down and squished in the car."As well as dislodging a vertebra, which severed his spinal cord, he broke every rib on his left side, a few on his right, and punctured a lung. He is paralysed from the waist down and accepts he will not walk again. Fellow back-seat passenger Erina Kaiwai suffered serious back and neck injuries, but would later recover, while Jayden Carter and front-seat passenger Theo Grant walked away with scratches.Trevor was flown to Canterbury, where he spent the next four months at Burwood spinal unit.While the circumstances of the crash were horrific, the background leading up to it was almost comical, he said.After failing year 12, Trevor had quit school to work on his father's Blue Rock Rd farm. But after three terms away from school, he made up his mind to return, hoping one day to study at the New Zealand Institute of Sport."The day of the crash was my first day back at school," he said. "I didn't even make a full day."He refuses to blame Carter. "People thought that I would hate him for what happened, but I don't at all. It was just one of those things."Once a keen rugby, basketball, and hockey player, he says the one thing he misses is playing sport.But along with his father, stepmother, and three younger siblings, he is determined to enjoy life."You have to be able to laugh about things," he says. "One time I was at school and there was a frost and one of my mates said, `Man, I can't feel my feet', and straight away I said, `Same with me', just to get a laugh."
We did some pretty stupid things when we first got our driver's licence, but you couldn't get into too much trouble in a Morris 1100 with cross-ply tyres. Today's cars though are missiles, and when things go wrong, the consequences can be catastrophic and last a lifetime.
6 comments:
Not much trouble in a 1956 Hillman Minx either - although I did get it up to 80mph on a slight downhill run on Makarora Road near Tikokino one day.
I did have one rather fast (by comparison) trip to Auckland in a mate's Morris Minor, where at one point the speedo was reading "Made in England"!
Rose tinted glasses I think.
In 1973 843 people died on NZ roads, in 2011 it was down to 284 despite enormous increases in population and vehicles. The last time the road toll was below 300 was in 1952 when 272 people died. Old cars were death traps, steel dashboards, no safety belts, poor brakes, no controlled collapse on impact, bad roads and young drivers back then were just as stupid: 80 mph in a 1956 Hillman Minx and pdm still thinks he couldn't get into much trouble, I rest my case. Cross ply tyres were also killers, you have much more chance of surviving today when things go wrong.
There's a grain of truth in what you say Anon, but the car I learned to drive in did 65 mph at best (with a tail wind), unlike the rocket-ships that the young people drive today. Roads have also improved hugely, which I am sure contributes to the lower road toll. But at the speed today's cars are going, a moment's inattention can have catastrophic consequences.
Jesus Christ. There is definitely something wrong with our driver training regime when a young fellow with all his faculty's can lose control of a modern car at 120kph.
I put it all down to this stupid mantra the Cops keep quoting that speed kills.
No one should get a license unless they can demonstrate an ability to control and regain control of an out of control vehicle at speeds in excess of the normal limit.
Yeah, but then you're a fuckwit Johnboy. What you're proposing is a good way to kill more people. Nice one.
Post a Comment