‘Don’t take life for granted’
A Taranaki man who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident is urging drivers to take care on the roads this Christmas.
Trevor Collins, 42,was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle to work on December 8, 2016 when an out-of-control driver skidded across the centre line and smashed into him, sending him flying 15 metres through the air.
The force of the impact destroyed the bones in and cut the blood supply to Collins’ right ankle, requiring it to be amputated, as well as breaking his leg in seven places.
Collins, who now has a prosthetic, says the past 12 months have been a rollercoaster as he’s rebuilt his broken body and began piecing his life back together.
‘‘I didn’t want to go out, it has taken me this long to get used to looking at myself like this,’’ he says looking down at his artificial lower leg which replaced the flesh and bone.
‘‘I’m with this for the rest of my life.’’
Collins’ wife Lisa was by his side as he fought through the dark times.
‘‘He wouldn’t go out for a long time, I had to beg him to come out. He wouldn’t leave the house for a long time,’’ she says.
She broke down in tears while recalling what it was like watching her husband go through the months of physiotherapy and torment of having to learn to walk again using the prosthetic. Collins is not alone. In 2016/2017 financial year, ACC received 37,880 new claims from people suffering from road trauma injuries.
Motorcyclists and their passengers made up 4056 of those claims. The second highest cohort after people travelling in cars 26,557.
During the same year ACC paid out $449 million on active road accident claims, $93 million to those who had been on motorcycles and $270 million to people travelling in cars.
More ACC claimants were for motorcyclists than those travelling in buses, and trucks combined. There were also less claims for cyclists than motorcyclists.
Motorcyclists disproportionate representation in the statistics is a reflection of the vulnerability motorcyclists in crashes.
It doesn’t mean motorcyclists are to blame, Collins says.
‘‘The only protection you have got is the gear you are wearing, your jacket, your gloves, boots, jacket and if you are wearing any sort of pants, leggings, that’s all you have got,’’ Collins says.
It’s been a horrific year on New Zealand’s roads with 356 deaths so far, already 51 more than were killed in all of 2016.
The driver who hit Collins, Joel Jonathan Broughton, is a patched member of the Nomads gang who had served more than 50 jail terms.
Broughton fled the scene and it took months for police to locate him. He initially denied driving the car but later admitted it but claimed he had fallen asleep at the wheel.
By the time Broughton was sentenced in October, he had spent six months on remand on unrelated charges, and he was released two days later.
Collins made a special appeal for drivers to pay more attention to motorcyclists.
‘‘My situation was slightly different but as a rule I think most car drivers are looking out for car drivers not all road users.’’
He encouraged motorcyclists to remain alert at all times.
‘‘You can’t take it for granted that everything is going to be ok, I’m walking proof of that.’’