Instincts save drivers
Calls for better training as Road Safety Week starts
DECADES of driving on rural roads, an analytical mind and decisive instincts saved a local doctor’s life, and that of an “irresponsible and inexperienced” P-Plate driver distracted by her phone.
In June 2016, the doctor narrowly avoided a head-on collision with an oncoming car driven by a 19-year-old girl on the New England Highway, just outside Warwick.
The medico had been returning home to Toowoomba after finishing her shift when, to her horror, she saw an oncoming car veer out from behind a truck, the young driver lean down, then quickly overcorrect. The result was a high-impact collision on the two vehicles’ passenger sides.
Miraculously, both drivers escaped without a broken bone.
But the medico’s life changed in that instant - her opinions of young drivers and belief that they underwent extensive driving, but also her physical and emotional wellbeing.
The medico was forced to call on her aging father to care for her in Toowoomba who, tragically, suffered a fall which started a decline in his health.
For her own, the local doctor struggled through the pain to walk, her former physical life now one spent with a limp, she put on 30kg which now put her at risk of developing osteoarthritis, and dramatically changed her retirement plans.
“It’s destroyed my life,” the doctor told The Chronicle.
“All because that irresponsible and inexperienced driver couldn’t leave her phone alone.”
The P-plater driver pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention, and was fined.
The doctor shared her story for Road Safety Week, geared towards changing attitudes of drivers. She supports any workplace that encourages staff, particularly in rural areas, to undertake defensive courses.
Maurice Blackburn lawyer, Kelsey Hyslop, for the medio, said her firm supported Road Safety Week.
“The injuries my client sustained were as a result of a young distracted driver using her phone whilst driving along a 100km/h highway,” she said.
“As a road safety advocate who assists clients who have been seriously injured in road accidents, I am all too aware that a moment’s inattention can have serious and long term impacts for not only the individual but also their loved ones and the broader community.
“It’s important that the Darling Downs community makes road safety their number one priority.”