CAFE DEATH Man ignored pleas not to drive ute
That the Department of Transport and Main Roads take the role as lead agency in the formation of an inter-agency working group comprising relevant stakeholders including, but not limited to, the following:
Department of Transport and Main Roads (Qld); Department of Health (Qld); Austroads; APHRA; Office of the Health Ombudsman; AMA (Australia and Qld); RACGP; College of Rural and Remote Medicine; Hospital Health Services; Medical Board of Australia; and Australian College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM)
That the inter-working group collaborate to develop an ongoing education and awareness campaign directed to all medical practitioners in the State of Queensland, including hospital-based doctors (including rural and remote hospitals) and general practitioners, (including rural and remote general practitioners) and that such a campaign be specifically developed to educate medical practitioners about the pathways that already exist, for medical practitioners to report patients directly to the state driver licencing authority in circumstances that are consistent with the medical standards provided for in the Austroad assessing fitness to drive guidelines.
That consideration be given to a community campaign targeted at licence holders reminding them of their obligations to immediately report to TMR any medical events (including seizures and epilepsy) which may affect their fitness to drive.
THE man who crashed his ute into a Queensland cafe, sparking an explosion that killed two people and seriously injured more than a dozen, should not have been behind the wheel, a coroner says.
Brian Andrew Scutt suffered an epileptic seizure and lost consciousness before veering off the road and slamming into the Serves You Right Cafe in Ravenshoe in June 2015.
The impact ignited two l large gas bottles, causing a massive fireball, which killed cafe manager and mother-oftwo Nicole Nyholt, 37, and 83y year-old grandmother M Margaret Clark.
Twenty people j jured.
An inquest found Mr Scutt i ignored family, friends and, most importantly, doctors’ warnings not to drive.
“On three separate occasions he did not heed the advice of medical practitioners not to drive,” coroner Nerida Wilson said in findings published late yesterday.
His widow, Robyn Scutt, told the Cairns Coroners Court she had warned her husband not to drive in the days before the crash.
“I had a sit-down talk with him and I said: ‘Look, Brian, I’m really concerned about you driving and I am concerned that, you know, you might kill somebody’,” she said while giving evidence.
Mr Scutt was charged with dangerous driving cause death following the collision.
However, a court ruled him permanently unfit for trial on mental health grounds because of his dementia.
He died last year, aged 64, and did not give evidence at the inquest.
Ms Wilson said the inquest revealed a number of gaps in were inthe way health and transport worked with each other.
“It seems to me one of the issues arising from this inquest is whether or not patient care can be better triaged and managed between systems,” Ms Wilson said.
“Mr Scutt was lost to both the hospital system and his GP in respect of any long-term monitoring and treatment plan.
“Every event that occurred was treated in isolation.
“In each of those occasions, it seems the GP was not immediately aware of the state of events.
“The loss of connection between the hospital and his GP required Mr Scutt to become the conduit of his own care and treatment.”
The court heard that Mr Scutt had five seizures dating back to 2004 and had been repeatedly told by doctors at the Atherton Hospital and his GP, Dr Kenneth Connolly, not to drive.
Mr Scutt managed to renew his licence twice in that time — both times indicating he had never suffered a seizure.
By August 2014, his seizures met the clinical definition for epilepsy.
The court also heard that Mr Scutt “was selective in his reporting to all doctors and hospitals and his family”.
In 2009, two days after being discharged from hospital, he told Dr Connolly he had dizziness but did not reveal he had been in hospital for a seizure.
Some time later, Dr Connolly became aware of the discharge letter from the hospital but did not follow up, believing the hospital would follow through.
“By any accepted standards of general practice, Dr Connolly upon reading the discharge letter would then be aware his patient had either under or falsely reported to him and was seized with a professional obligation to re-call or follow up with Mr Scutt,” Ms Wilson said.
“To remain absolutely silent or passive and not at least discuss the letter with Mr Scutt is concerning and lost a potential opportunity for the GP to open up care and treatment pathways with his own patient.”
Ms Wilson found that Mr Scutt was not fit to drive on the day of the crash based on his seizure history and “deterioration of his physical and mental health in the month leading up to the accident”.
She said that if his licence had been suspended or revoked in 2014, or if medical conditions had been endorsed