Mission to stop crashes
A PUB director in the Gold Coast hinterland didn’t know his job would include being first on scene at serious traffic crashes.
Justin Hemer runs the Fox and Hounds at Wongawallan, and said the intersection next to his restaurant has seen too many devastating accidents, including one that claimed the life of 25year-old truck driver Hayden Manuel-Lima earlier this month.
“There are so many (crashes),” Mr Hemer said.
“The staff, we’re always running down, attending the scene.
“The last guy that ran this place, I heard that he got sick and tired of always running down there all the time.”
Mr Hemer said he had seen two fatalities and four serious accidents in his three years there, including one with a motorcyclist on Wednesday night.
“One that was bad was a guy was trapped in his truck for six hours, before they decided to amputate his legs, and he died straight away,” Mr Hemer said.
“We’re all used accidents around there.”
Mr Manuel-Lima was driving his truck on the evening of May 5 when it was involved in a cash with two cars and flipped on its to roof. After five days on life support at the Gold Coast University Hospital, the New Zealand-born man died.
A friend has since set up a GoFundMe to have his body flown home to his “whanau”, Maori for family.
It has a goal of raising $10,000.
“Hayden always had a huge cheeky grin on his face that lit up any room,” friend Shanade Ketia posted to the fundraising page.
“He has a heart of gold and was so giving and caring to those close to him.
“He was genuinely a bloody crack-up to be around. He will be sadly missed.
“Right now our families are needing your support to get Hayden back home to lie in New Zealand where he deserves a farewell with his family.”
Next week, Mr Hemer will meet with Coomera state MP Michael Crandon to discuss the potential solutions to the lethal intersection.
“They’re about to start roadworks in that area, they’re going to improve it, but it’s about 50m up from where our intersection is,” Mr Hemer said.
“My thoughts are, what can the engineers do, what can they come up with, knowing what’s happened in the last five years?”