HEARTACHE Fatality fear on ‘racetrack’ roads
AN off-duty doctor who helped save the life of a teenager seriously injured in a horror Tallai crash says the Hinterland area has turned into a “racetrack”.
Dr Robert Fassett said the teen was lucky to be alive.
He said it was the second crash his family had witnessed on The Panorama this month.
“Just one week before, a woman, we believe was under the influence, crashed in almost the same spot,” he said.
“She was uninjured, but her car was a write-off ... it’s only a matter of time before one of these drivers kills themselves, or someone else.
“Both the woman and the teen drivers narrowly missed hitting my stepson.
“The area is like a racetrack, it seems to have gotten worse in the past few years, as a doctor you see these injuries ... you know what a crash can do to someone ... we don’t want to see someone die.”
There have been fatalities in the area in recent years, but Dr Fassett said at this rate, it was only a matter of time.
Dr Fassett had just got home from work on February 7 when his stepson called him in a panic.
“The boys had been out walking, when a car veered into the wrong lane, just metres from hitting them and crashed straight down the embankment,” he said.
“I went running over, you couldn’t see anything from the road, but when I looked over the edge I could see the car was wedged between trees about 20m down.
“I crawled to the wreck, there was already a man and an off-duty nurse down there, they had opened the car door and were trying to help him.
“He had blood coming from his ear, which is usually a sign of a skull fracture, he was unconscious and breathing, but not responding.
“I cleared his airways, made sure he wasn’t choking on blood or his tongue and worked on him for some time until the paramedics arrived.
“We was agitated and flailing around a lot, he was not in a good way.”
The driver, 17-year-old Brad Wright, remains in a serious but stable condition in the Gold Coast University Hospital.
He survived the serious crash, but has a long road to recovery ahead.
Mudgeeraba officer in charge, Senior Sergeant Mark Anderson, said hooning was an issue his officers took seriously.
“We do run operations in the area from time to time and officers do random patrols at night,” he said.
“The issue we have is, when these guys see us they take off and find somewhere else.
“We rely on residents reporting information, but understand that can be hard when it’s dark and the cars are fast.”