‘YOUR HUSBAND HAS BEEN HIT BY A TRUCK’
THEY are the words that will haunt Bec Officer forever – “Your husband’s been hit by a truck”.
“I was out the front of the house and two boys on pushbikes rode up and said ‘Is this (her address)’,” Bec recalled of the moment she learned of Saturday’s suburban motorcycle accident that has left her husband in danger of never walking again. “I said ‘Yes’ and they said ‘Your husband’s been hit by a truck’.”
Moments earlier, Jace Officer was less than a minute from their Elanora home when his Harley-Davidson collided with a Nissan Patrol on Casuarina Drive.
The 28-year-old fell beneath the vehicle’s rear wheels and was rushed to Gold Coast University Hospital with a smashed vertebrae, broken pelvis and ribs, collapsed lung, internal bleeding and ruptured spleen.
Bec said her husband underwent emergency surgery in the early hours of Sunday after losing feeling in his legs.
“He was stable but about 3am he could no longer move his bottom half so they rushed him into theatre and operated on his spine,” she said.
“They have to wait to see how everything heals and hopefully he’ll be able to walk again.
“We’ve also been trying to have our own baby and asked the surgeon if that can still happen but they couldn’t tell us. Time will tell.”
A plasterer, Jace was returning from working in Brisbane when the accident happened about 2.30pm.
“I’ve been told he kept saying ‘My wife, my wife’ and couldn’t get my phone number out but said our address and that’s when the boys came,” Bec said.
“As soon as I got around the corner I could see everything. It was horrible.
“There’s a skid mark from the split second where Jace tried to stop but the bike has clipped the vehicle’s sidestep. The bike was fine but he took all the hit and went under the back wheels.”
Bec said she had since received a phone call from the driver of the Patrol.
“I couldn’t talk to him but Mum had a chat and he said he was very sorry,” she said.
“It was just an accident. I hope he doesn’t blame himself. If he had seen Jace, he wouldn’t have driven out. It’s just one of those things.”
The couple’s loved ones have started a Go Fund Me campaign that has already raised more than $3000.