TWO quick-thinking tradies are playing down their actions after preventing a serious accident on Monday.
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Plasterers Matthew Gleeson and Brad Kelly were on their way to Port Fairy when they came across an elderly motorist driving erratically along the Princes Highway.
The pair overtook the diabetic woman, who was in hypoglycemic shock, forcing her to hit the back of their ute and stopping her progress at the intersection with Woodbine Road.
“We were following her from the Illowa overtaking lane,” Mr Kelly said.
“We followed her the whole way until she went off the road and we pulled around in front of her to stop her. She crashed into the back of our ute.”
The woman, an insulin-dependent diabetic, veered towards oncoming traffic before being helped.
She was suffering from shock due to extremely low blood sugar levels.
“We thought it may have been a drunk-driver,” Mr Kelly said.
“When we stopped her she didn’t really know what was going on.”
The driver, aged in her 70s, has recovered and was released from hospital on Monday evening.
The pair said they were glad the woman was OK and there were no major collisions.
“There were log trucks coming and lots of other cars on the road,” Mr Kelly said.
The Standard’s Facebook page received messages of congratulations for the Warrnambool men.
“I reckon it was an awesome effort by the tradies,” Brendan Ryan wrote.
Matthew Dowd posted: “Congratulations go out to these tradesmen! Saved lives and a lot of major accidents by the sounds of things.”
Jan Oliver-Ramsay said: “I know this lady, she would be horrified if anyone was hurt.”
“So grateful for those tradies (thanks so much guys). A darling lady, so glad she, and everyone else is okay.”
The Get Plastered Now plasterers said they just did what anyone else would have done in that situation.
The incident had added drama when an ambulance called to the scene was sent more than 100-kilometres away, after a mix up at a triple-zero call centre.
Confusion over the location meant an ambulance from Heywood was sent to an intersection by the same name at Mumbannar, near the South Australian border.
The Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority reviewed the dispatch and said it was based on the incorrect location not ambulance availability.
Ambulance Victoria said crews were available in both Warrnambool and Port Fairy at the time.
