Retired paramedic Ray Tait shares his experience as a first responder to fatalities in Tamworth.
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00:14 I use the analogy of if you throw a rock into a pond, what happens?
00:20 The ripples go out. And you say to people, how many people do you think this impacts?
00:25 If you are severely injured or killed, right now, how many people do you think it impacts?
00:33 It impacts your mother, your father, your brother, sisters, aunties, uncles, all the relatives.
00:38 But then your workmates, your social environment, your life changes forever if you survive.
00:44 A lot of people are under the misconception that, a lot of misconceptions around crash centers.
00:49 And by stepping through that process of the actuality of it, why things happen the way they do,
00:55 is that an old Morris 1100 that had a book up on the back parcel shelf.
01:00 And a not elderly lady, but an older lady, driving her car, hit a tension on her back,
01:08 she ran up the back of a truck, and the book came off the back parcel shelf,
01:12 come up and hit her in the back of the neck, broke her neck, killed her.
01:16 So there's those sorts of things, that most people don't even give a thought to.
01:21 The worst day of my ambulance career was in Corinth's court, here in Tamworth,
01:26 giving evidence about four kids that were killed in one motor vehicle crash,
01:33 through a stupid act, and looking down at four sets of parents, sitting down there,
01:40 and up until then, until they got in that court, all they knew was that their child,
01:45 the person that they loved, had died from a motor vehicle crash,
01:49 and had to sit through my testimony as to the horrific injuries that those kids sustained.
01:55 And believe me, they were horrific.
01:57 And it was like someone reaching down my throat and pulling my heart out,
02:01 because you know that you've just flattened eight people.
02:05 You've absolutely demolished eight people.
02:08 But you can't stand in court and sugar-coat it, fuzz it up.
02:14 And that's why I'm so adamant about road safety issues,
02:18 because I just don't want to see people get hurt.
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