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Gumnuts Early Learning Centre educator Jess Gell shaved her head last week, raising money for three-year-old Daphne Williams, who is currently battling leukaemia.
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DAPHNE’S DAY
STORY - PAGE 9 Photo: Zoe Askew
Renewing calls
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RACES THIS SUNDAY SPORT
Stefan Bradley
FOR the first time in his life, interstate truck driver Allan Proud, 51, genuinely thought he was going to die. The Stratford local has been driving trucks for more than 25 years. Last week was just like any other as he departed for Sydney, a trip he does most weeks. It was about 10.30am on Monday, March 20 as he drove his truck on a stretch of road on the Princes Highway between Stratford and Bairnsdale, near the Princes Hwy Parking Lot. It’s a road he’s very familiar with. Mr Proud said a smaller truck was in front of him, and was following a line of traffic before a collision occurred. After hitting the small vehicle, Mr Proud’s truck stopped when it hit the road barrier. “I couldn’t see what was going on in front of his truck. He was in front (and) he had a better view of everything. I was
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watching what his brake lights were doing, so I couldn’t quite see what the cause of the accident was,” Mr Proud said. “The driver of the smaller truck told me that everybody just stopped dead in front of him, so I’m assuming that’s what happened … that the cars that were behind (the smaller truck) went in to overtake him, but didn’t quite have enough room, so they hit the brakes. “Then the smaller truck that was in front of me hit the brakes and I started pulling up, and then he stopped a little bit quicker, so I started veering into the left-hand emergency lane to try and go between him and the guard rail. “And then the smaller truck driver put the hazard (lights) on to give me a warning that he was going to come to a complete stop, and I ran out of room and drove straight up the back of him. “I hit him on my driver’s side, and then after I bounced off him. My truck pulled
me into the middle barrier and that’s where I ended up. “It was unlucky. There was nothing I could have done.” There was no fatal injuries. “I’ve done a lot of dumb s**t, but that’s the first time in my life I thought I might die,” he said. Once it happened, Mr Proud got out of the truck and a bystander phoned 000. The road was blocked because of the incident and spilled coolant. Mr Proud’s injuries were a fractured ankle bone and a swollen knee. He’s now on crutches and off work for six weeks. “I just gotta rest up and be bored s**tless,” Mr Proud said with a laugh. “That’s the worst part, I’m used to being out every day doing something and now I’ve gotta sit in my chair. “I’m a worker. I’ve always worked. I don’t want to be sitting around.” Mr Proud has mixed feelings about the barriers in general, but hopes that the lanes are duplicated. “A lot of people are saying the barriers
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are no good. I think that they are no good, but I also think they are okay as well, because if it wasn’t for that middle barrier, I would have (gone) across the other side of the road into oncoming traffic, because I had no control over the truck,” he said. “I think the government really needs to have a look at duplicating that road because they’ve spent all this money on safety and it’s not working. That’s not the first time I’ve nearly had an accident on that road, and heaps of other people have (experienced) the same. “(The government) spent the money on the Traralgon-Sale Rd and duplicated it. It’s about time they looked at this one I reckon. Barriers are not the answer.” Nationals Member for East Gippsland, Tim Bull, told the Gippsland Times that improvement work needs to be done before they claim a life. Continued Page 5
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