LUCKY TO LIVE
A YOUNG Cardwell man flown to Townsville Hospital following a high-speed accident that left his car wrapped around a tree on the Bruce Highway has been described as “a lucky bastard” by his father, a well-known local Vietnam War veteran.
Patrick Watson said son Sean, 21, ( above) had suffered cuts and abrasions but miraculously had not sustained a single broken bone or any internal injuries in the singlevehicle accident at Damper Creek, south of Cardwell, at 8.30am yesterday.
He said the worst single injury was severed tendons on his son’s lacerated foot, which was trapped in the mangled wreckage of his car.
“He’s good, he’s not going to (die) on us ... he’s a lucky bastard.”
Mr Watson, a former vicepresident of the Cardwell RSL who remains a delegate, said it was hard to believe that anyone could have survived the impact given the state of the vehicle, particularly given Sean’s height of 193cm (6ft 4in).
The driver’s door hit a tree, he said.
“I’m glad it wasn’t bloody head on, if he hit that tree head on mate, he would’ve gone through the windscreen, or tried to,” he said.
“The sideways hit ioned the blow a bit.”
Mr Watson, who has been organising Cardwell’s Vietnam Veterans Day commemcushorations, said Sean, described by locals as a “beautiful soul brought up right”, had the presence of mind to call him directly after the accident before he passed out.
“When it happened, Sean rung me and just before he passed out he gave it to a lady,” he said.
Mr Watson said the witness had told him Sean was an “innocent bystander”.
She had told him that Sean was allegedly attempting to overtake a vehicle when it pulled out to overtake a second vehicle.
“Having spoken to him, I didn’t think much of it but when I got there and saw the actual (vehicle), I freaked out then,” he said.
Mr Watson praised emergency responders from Cardwell and Ingham, who worked quickly, efficiently and seamlessly together to free his son from the wreckage and get him to Townsville in a stable condition.
“Great, great, absolutely bloody lous,” he said.
There now have been two fabu- fabu fatal accidents id t and a nearfatal accident within 20km of each other in just over a year, in what is becomin ing an increasingly n notorious stretch of the Bruce Highw way.
Mr Watson, a re retiree, said he h had two mates, incl cluding a fellow ve veteran, who had di died between C Cardwell and the C Cardwell Ranges bordering the Cassowary Coast and Hinchinbrook Shire.