My day from hell

Written 14th April 2009

Last Sunday exactly a week ago today I had my worst day ever in my entire life. I was the first to a double fatality car accident, and then just hours later I witnessed somebody get killed in motorbike racing while I was flag marshaling Australian Superbike championships.

My father and I had left early in the morning around 6:10 am to gl flag marshaling as the race track is a bit over an hour away and we needed to be early for briefings sign ons ect.

We were traveling along and saw a ute wrapped around a tree. There were two ppl walking around looking very lost. I then saw a guy in the car with blood on his face. I said to dad we're going to have to help!

So we pulled over. I grabbed my first aid kit and went running to the scene. The driver was well and truly trapped and screaming for us to get him out. I asked if somebody had called 000 and a nearby neighbor yelled out yep I did.

I could see a guy slumped over in the middle virtually curled up in a fetal position. there was no way I could get to him. One of the ppl said there is another one over here. I was shocked that there could be someone else as there wasn't anything left for me to find anybody else. I raced around and saw a man slumped, head and arm leaning out the window.

I opened my my first aid kit grabbed my gloves to take a pulse on him. I couldn't get a radial pulse so I tried a carotid pulse but still nothing. I then went to inspect his eyes and realised they were open but not moving.

My father asked me how is he? I said he is deceased and I think its reasonable to believe the one in the middle is too. I then focused on the driver. Had a hard time keeping his head still he was frantic to get out.

Eventually a firetruck state emergency services tonnes of police and an ambulance arrived although they seemed to take forever to get there. I stood around talking to the driver while they used the jaws of life to get him out.

We left the scene I was pretty shaken but we still went to flag marshal for the day which was a big mistake. standby for what happened to me while flag marshaling Australian Superbikes Championships less than 3 hours later.

When I commenced flag marshaling my mind of course was on what I had seen. The racing bikes did several warm up laps and completed one race without incident.

The second race they had just completed their second lap and were on their 3rd. I heard scraping and looked down to a rider had crashed he went sliding for ages. Then hell broke loose. There was a sudden very loud whooooooooooshhhhhhhh then a wall of flames went straight through where I was standing I looked up after moving back from flames and then saw a guy do a faceplant which won't go into details as it was graphic but it killed him instantly. I then grabbed the fire extinguisher jumped the fence with it and put out two bikes that were in flames as well as the track surrounding them.

I looked up and saw an ambulance arrive and then a medical race car. One of the ambulance officers waved the medical car on nd yelled out this ones dead. It then really hit me what I had gone through this entire day. I felt so numb. One of the medical guys went up to me and asked if I was alright, I stuttered my words Im fffffine. He said no your not you look so pale your coming with us. I went over to my dad who was standing at a different spot to me but saw it all as well and told him what I had seen and nearly burst into tears. I was then nearly dragged into a course car and brought into a medical centre where I got some counseling.

Monday I seeked professional counseling. This will be ongoing as long as it takes.

Thursday I had to ring a counseling phone line as I was getting headaches trying to get my head around what happened.

On friday a police sergeant came to my house to collect a statement of what I had seen in regards to the car crash.


This is by far the weirdest and worst day of my life. Never in my life did I expect either of these let alone all in one day, one morning within hours!

I will be needing help for sometime after this. I felt like the angel of death. I later found out the two ppl deceased in the car were only 15 and 16.

These are links to news paper articles of the incident. http://covers.ruralpress.com/frontpages/208/17731.pdf

and

http://www.theadvocate.com.au/news/local/news/general/my-day-from-hell/1488649.aspx

I'm glad ur ok Taz.....and ur a true hero!!!!!

Advise viewer discretion:This video I took is the same spot the rider was killed less than 24 hours before it happened. He is in this clip but I refuse to say which one. You get the idea of the speed of this section. Needless to say whenever I was in charge of flag marshals after this they never ever stood on this point again for their safety. The average speed you see them doing is 180 - 200 km/h or 111 to 124 miles an hour this section

My God Taz what a terrible day you had!!! How are you getting on now? I hope your still getting counselling? I'm not surprised you needed it after seeing all that. Ye Gods.

As of now I haven't had counseling since may 2009. I since turned everything around... I became chief flag marshal for motorbike racing and became road crash rescue, which I still am today. I gave up the flag marshalling bit over a year ago due to my wifes health