DETAILS EMERGE ABOUT HOW ICONIC CRICKETER DIED
TOWNSVILLE.-Acouplewhowere the first to find Andrew Symonds’ wrecked car desperately tried to revive him while the cricket greats’ loyal dogs refused to leave his side.
The retired all-rounder died about 10.30pm on Saturday in Hervey Range, 50km west of Townsville in Far North Queensland, when his vehicle left the road and rolled. He was the only person in the car but his two beloved blue heelers were also in the vehicle and survived the crash.
Babetha Neliman and her boyfriend Waylon Townson were on the scene just two minutes after the crash but Symonds didn’t have a pulse.
“When we got there we could see a car upside down with a man in it,” Ms Neliman told the Courier Mail, adding she immediately noticed the cricketer’s two dogs.
The couple found the cricket great hanging partially out of the car on the passenger side and said the car was still on and playing country music. They said one of the dogs refused to leave his owners’ side. Symonds called his blue heeler puppy his ‘new best mate’ in an Instagram post eight years ago.
“One of them was very sensitive and didn’t want to leave him,” Ms Neliman said. “It would just growl at you every time we tried to move him or go near him.”
She said her boyfriend tried to get Symonds out of the car to place him on his back, but he was “unconscious, not responsive and had no pulse.”
“He was stuck in there, so I tried to pull him out,” Mr Townson told 9News.
“(I) started doing CPR and checked his pulse but I didn’t get much response.”
The couple had no idea at the time the man in the vehicle was cricket legend Andrew Symonds.
Symonds was on Hervey Range Road near Alice River Bridge when the accident happened, and he was removed from the vehicle to be treated by paramedics, who were on the scene when officers arrived.
“Emergency services attempted to revive the 46-year-old driver and sole occupant, however, he died of his injuries,” Queensland Police said yesterday morning.
Inspector Gavin Oates told the Courier Mail there is no suggestion alcohol was involved, and said nearby residents were at the scene.
“I think they provided the assistance they could at the time and called 000 and emergency services,” he added.
Inspector Oates said the section of the Hervey Road Range where the cricketer was discovered wasn’t known for car accidents.
The Forensic Crash Unit will investigate the cause of the crash.
Symonds’ family confirmed his death and thanked friends and fans for their sympathy and support with his wife Laura voicing her grief on Sunday.
“We are still in shock - I’m just thinking of the two kids,” she told NewsCorp, referring to Symonds’ daughter Chloe, 4, and Billy, 2.
“He was just such a big person and there was so much of him in his kids.”
She and the children flew to Townsville yesterday. His passing has shocked the sporting world just weeks after fellow cricket great Shane Warne suffered a fatal heart attack while on holiday in Thailand in March. In a shock twist of fate, Symonds’ last Instagram post was a tribute to his teammate on March 5, hours after Warne’s death.
“Devastated, I’m hoping this is all a bad dream, I just can’t get my head around never seeing you again. Love to all the Warne family I’m speechless,” he said.
The close mates spent last New Year’s Eve together at The Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda, along with their former teammate Michael Hussey.