Couple urge quad care
ATHERTON couple Jodie and Mario Cocco are ardent quad bike safety campaigners after almost losing son Domenic in a crash when he was only seven.
Domenic is now a thriving teenager, but sports where he could receive a head knock are out of the question.
The family was at a friend’s property where other children were riding the quad bike and the boy insisted he could have a turn himself.
“He went full throttle, he didn’t know how to operate it and he wasn’t wearing a helmet,” Ms Cocco said.
In every parents’ worst nightmare, Domenic was careening towards Gillies Range Rd but hit with a powerpole, flipped and lay motionless.
“I remember screaming at Mario, ‘make him breathe, make him breathe’,” she said.
Mr Cocco, who works as a firefighter, performed CPR on his son.
“Domenic was making a gurgling sound and I said, ‘Domenic, just stay with me, stay with me,” he said.
He urges everyone to have up-todate first aid qualifications.
“Without that initial first response . . . it could have been a totally different outcome,” he said.
Domenic was flown to Townsville where he was put into an induced coma and had surgery on a brain bleed.
“At one stage, the doctor sat us down and said, ‘I don’t think Domenic is going to make it’, but he was a little fighter,” Ms Cocco said.
“He had to learn to walk again, he couldn’t eat, couldn’t swallow ... and we didn’t know what he’d be like.
“We’ve been lucky, we know of families who haven’t been so lucky.
“We thought (quad bikes) were toys. Quad bikes aren’t toys.”
The couple are saddened there have been nine quad bike fatalities this year and 24 last year.
“If what we do can change the outcome for just one person, then we have done our job,” Ms Cocco said.
Laws mandate quad bikes to meet stability guidelines, have rollover protection and warnings about the degree of slope at which they overturn.