Adrian Benson is often faced with the other side of road trauma.
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As the head of allied health services at Warrnambool’s St John of God, Mr Benson works with crash survivors who face a challenging journey to recovery.
Every day Mr Benson helps people like Tony Cassar, who was involved in a horrific smash six months ago, to regain as much of their former life as possible.
“Unfortunately, as wonderful as it is to meet people like Tony, we meet them under difficult circumstances,” Mr Benson said.
He said those critically injured in crashes were often the forgotten statistics of road trauma.
“People jump in the car, they duck down to the shops, or you might ring and say ‘I’m leaving work, I’ll be home soon’ and that ‘soon’ might turn into three or four months,” Mr Benson said.
“It’s just one of those risks we know we’re involved with being a road user, but people never think it will happen to them. Unfortunately at 100 kilometres an hour you don’t get the opportunity to make many choices when things go wrong.”
Mr Benson is also a volunteer speaker with Road Trauma Support Services Victoria, which holds regular court-imposed awareness seminars for traffic offenders.
“The road toll is always talked about and publicised and the TAC do a lot of campaigning, but I try to talk to people about the personal stories, like Tony’s story and other people like Tony who have been affected by road trauma,” he said.
“(These people) don’t get counted in those statistics around road fatalities, but the impact that it’s had on Tony’s life is incredibly significant.”
Mr Benson said the hospital was well-equipped to help those embarking on their recovery.
“At St John of God Hospital we have a 14-bed rehab unit, so getting people from those big metropolitan hospitals back closer to home is such an advantage. They’re in an environment that’s a bit more familiar and they can have friends and family visit,” he said.
Mr Benson said the hospital also offered a hydrotherapy pool, gym, physiotherapy treatment, occupational therapists and mental health experts to help people affected by road trauma.