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Growing up I uh took a lot of dangerous risks you know, I did a lot of stupid things, but
I never thought I'd ever do anything that would result in serious injury; and,
when I was 19 and I trespassed on railway tracks
I never, never even thought that that would completely
change my life.
You know, people see me, they see the one arm, they see the one leg; they see the missing fingers
but they have no idea of the consequences that I live with every single
day of my life, just for taking a short-cut.
The emotional consequences are something that lives with you for the
rest of your life.
Uhm... you've got regret, denial
guilt, anger;
you know I feel angry for
what I put myself through and you know what about innocent people like the
train driver, the guard,
the police, the ambulance driver; the doctors, the nurses
like the train driver.
My accident happened in New South Wales. The train driver who was driving the train
that ran over me... he was
driving a five-hundred tonne train. He
saw me fifteen metres ahead,
he hit the emergency brakes; you know, I'm sure he didn't want the train to run over me,
but what else could he do?
You know, you've got the guard who jumped down on the train tracks; go two hundred
meters down the tracks and
see the mess that was left.
You know, not a vision I could get out of my head very quickly.
When I see people taking dangerous risks such as what happens, happened at
Mawson Lakes Interchange,
it horrifies me;
it gives me shivers all over because I think
how close that person was to losing their life. When I
was younger, I felt invincible.
I had people come out to my school
talk about safety, injury prevention, but I never thought it would happen to me.
I took a lot of dangerous risks growing up and when you take dangerous risks, it's just
a matter of time before something happens,
not if something happens.
You know we take dangerous risks, we do silly things
but we don't understand it takes a split second; less
than a second to change our life forever.
You know, the tracks are for trains; obey all the signals. If you come onto a level crossing
and the lights are flashing, the bells dinging and the arms goin' down; you know, wait
the two minutes for the train to pass. Your life is worth so much more than just
a few seconds of your time
waiting.