DANLEE Hollard doesn’t believe she is cursed but a brush with calamity on a country road has strengthened her resolve to improve farm fences.
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A near-miss car accident on Tuesday evening brought back horrific memories for the 20-year-old of a livestock collision five years ago that claimed the life of her father.
The Warrnambool receptionist delivered an emotional speech to Moyne Shire councillors two nights ago about her push for more rigorous farm fencing regulations.
Only hours later, Ms Hollard was driving to her boyfriend’s house north-west of Koroit when she came within metres of hitting a stray bull.
She was driving west along Tarrone Lane when her high-beam headlights flickered in the dazed eyes of the runaway animal, and a split-second decision to swerve to the right saved her from hitting the bull head-on.
Ms Hollard sat at the wheel of her car “for a good 30 seconds, just really shocked and I just cried and cried”.
Incredibly, when she rang the Moyne Shire ranger soon after to report the incident, he was busy attending to other stray livestock near Peterborough.
The irony of her near-miss is not lost on Ms Hollard, who has spearheaded a campaign for more stringent boundary fences for property owners after her father Peter was killed near Tower Hill in 2006 when his car hit a bull on the Princes Highway.
Ms Hollard told councillors less than four hours before her lucky escape that, “to be told that these types of fences and gates are classed as secure makes me feel unsafe, even terrified, of driving on our roads knowing that at any time history could repeat itself”.
Ms Hollard spoke to The Standard yesterday about her close encounter to renew he call for better boundary fences in the south-west.
“I’ve had nightmares about what happened five years ago and I just felt like I was re-living that accident all over again,” she said.
“The memories from the accident (in 2006) are really clear, even though it was all over in a few seconds.
“Some people have said the crash that killed my father was a one-in-a-million event, but what happened (on Tuesday night) goes to show that there is a pretty high risk of further crashes on our roads.”
Ms Hollard said there were a number of factors on her side that averted a collision.
She bought a 2004 model Mazda3 a few months back which included fog lights allowing for better night-time vision, as well as her prior experience along the narrow Tarrone Lane.
She said the startled bull jumped through the adjacent wire fence from where it came.
asinnott@standard.fairfax.com.au
