“Boom! He flew out the back of the car and bounced down the road….”
them….at around 80km/h!
Luckily (and here’s where the happy coincidence of the moment found the right people, at the right place), Gene and Steve are both driver training professionals – specialising in teaching other drivers how to respond to emergency situations!
And they’d both sensed, as Steve puts it, that “something wasn’t right” with the car, its driver and young passenger – and the Isuzu was making its second attempt at pulling out to go around the car when, as Mitchell recounts, the “back door flew open.
“I saw the kid lean down….It looked like he was trying to grab a bag or something that he’d dropped….and as he sort of leaned down…. Boom! He flew out the back of the car and bounced down the road….
“Luckily for him, we’d actually repositioned the truck – because, if not, we would have actually driven right over the top of him.
“So we were right behind him…and if we hadn’t been taking notice of what was going on…it would have been so easy at that speed….” he tails off, before adding: “Even with a good following distance, to take evasive action – it’s pretty much not gonna happen. They’re gonna go under your wheels.”
As Mitchell, a senior heavy vehicle driving instructor with Axiom Training, told the NewZealandHerald: “I’ve seen lots of things in my life, but it’s the first time I’ve seen someone bounce on the road like that kid and survive.
‘My first thought was: ‘He’s a goner at that sort of speed.’ He was very lucky he didn’t hit the ground with his head.”
Gene, who was behind the wheel, reckons his driver training instincts – the ones he teaches other drivers – kicked in: “So, when the kid came out and fell out in front of us, because he kind of flipped for a couple of metres and started to tumble….that’s where our skill-set was quite good.
“I teach emergency braking, vehicle control, (dealing with) a high centre of gravity and all that sort of wonderful stuff.
“So as the kid tumbled out, I didn’t fixate on him. It was kind of weird, because I actually remember flicking across to the mirror to make sure there was no-one on my right hand side, and then pulling the truck over quite hard – to avoid him going under the tyre – while keeping it under control.”
Browne’s company, Driving & Technical Training Services (DTTS), works nationwide – training 4WD and truck drivers offroad driving skills – and he says his reactions were quite clinical, analytical: If there had been a car on the right, “I would have actually swung left (because I obviously don’t want to go crash into a car).
“He went out the left passenger door – he was kind of in line with the truck’s front (left) tyre. So if I didn’t swerve right, I would’ve gone left…..The pole truck’s got quite a high clearance underneath the differential, so I would have hoped that he’d have gone completely under the truck.
“But I mean, certainly (going) under the tyre would have been instant death.”
This, as he reiterates, “is what you train for. I mean, we do emergency braking all the time. We spend a good couple of hours doing emergency braking over and over, and over, and over, with a number of clients.
“But because you do that, it’s just a routine reaction. So I don’t stop and think, “Oh, should I?” It’s just: This is what you do. If you don’t do this – do that.”
As soon as the boy had disappeared behind the truck, the two professional trainers instantly switched to dealing with what else they could control – namely the car, seeing as the driver was clearly in trouble.
They sped up to get past it, pulled in front of it and then Gene slowly brought the Isuzu (and the car) to a halt – Steve jumping out to run back to the car while Gene dialled 111.
At the car Steve “leaned in and I was talking to the woman – trying to explain to her that ‘your kid’s just jumped out the back of the car…..’ She was totally non-responsive.”
In fact, he soon realised, she was actually still “driving it (her car) against the back of the truck – slowly bumping it, as if she was trying to keep driving forward. So I leaned in, put it in Park and took the
keys out.”
The two drivers were amazed when motorists who’d picked up the boy – 10-year-old Ryan Farrelly – from the roadside, joined them…and they discovered that he’d escaped with nothing worse than some bad grazes and bruises.
Says Steve: “He was a very lucky kid...I mean very, VERY lucky. I mean, the two of them could easily have been killed – because she was pretty much asleep with her eyes open.”
An ambulance crew that happened to be driving by (another lucky coincidence) was soon treating Ryan and his grandmother, Kathie Page, who they were told is diabetic and had apparently suffered a serious “low” in her blood sugar levels.
So Steve and Gene headed off on their job for the day….a refresher offroad driving session in the 4x4 truck for Gene (whose company contracts to Axiom), under the watchful eye of Steve.
They were surprised to learn the next day that they were the subject of “hero truckie” stories on the national tv news and in the papers – with Counties Manukau Police and media making public appeals to identify the two likely lifesavers.
On their Facebook page, Counties Manukau Police posted a photo of Kathie and Ryan visiting Sergeant Fleming at the Pokeno Police station office the day after the scary incident, and explained: “We want to share this heartwarming tale from our Highway Patrol team – but we need your help too.”
Ryan said that when his Nana slipped into a semi-conscious state, he’d tried to wake her. When that failed he climbed over and managed to put the brakes on…but she still had her foot on the accelerator. He then tried to alert other drivers to the emergency.
Said the Police: “Thinking they were going to crash, Ryan managed to get the car to slow to a walking pace and jumped clear of the vehicle.” (Actually, Steve and Gene are very clear, the exact speed was 80km/h – clearly shown on the truck’s EROAD screen on the dash).
The Police post added: “We’re pleased to report that Kathie is recovering well – Ryan’s heroic effort helped to save his Nana’s life.
“We’d still like the public’s help: We want to get in touch with the truck driver to thank him for his actions.”
Steve insists it wasn’t a case of heroism – “this is just something people do. Something you should do….it’s either in your makeup or not. It’s not a hero thing.”
The career truckie turned heavy vehicle driving instructor is happy though to be singled out as a CastrolTruckDriverHero, because truckies “do usually get a bad rap – so it’s good if we can have a bit of a positive every now and then.”
Gene told the NZHerald he’s “not that comfortable” with any hero tag: “I was probably just the person with the right skills – happened to be in the right place.”
He reckons that “effectively it was just what I teach my students anyway. So I’m glad it came into use.”
As CastrolTruckDriverHeroes, Steve and Gene each receive $500 prezzy cards and merchandise from Castrol – and they are now finalists in the annual 2019/2020 CastrolTruckDriverHeroAward, which carries a $3500 travel voucher for the winner. T&D