It’s been a sad start to 2022 on New Zealand roads with 10 deaths since the start of the year.
Every life lost on the road a tragedy – but those who survive also paying a huge, and often life-long toll.
So as thousands of Kiwis are driving home on Sunday at the end of an extended holiday, two young car crash survivors who are a year into their recovery from traumatic brain injuries have decided to share their stories, as a reminder of how in a single instance, your life can change forever.
Macey Coles, 20, flicks through the photo album showing the aftermath of her summer drive gone wrong. “It’s a bit surreal,” she said. “The last thing I remember is yelling stop.”
A week later, in December 2020, she woke up, to a new reality of life with a traumatic brain injury. “I just knew straight away that I was never going to be the same again,” she said.
The crash she was involved in caused a large brain bleed on the left side of her head and multiple fractures to her skull. She also lost skin on her back, and had injuries to her neck and pelvis.
She’s come a long way in her recovery, but finds she tires quickly, her movement is slower, and finds big social events can be overwhelming.
“Everything I do is a lot more exhausting, and just having a normal conversation with someone is a lot harder,” she said. “The process through my brain is a lot slower. I’m just not the bubbly energetic free-range 20-year-old anymore.”
While in hospital, Macey met fellow survivor, 17-year-old Thomas Boniface. The Taranaki teen had crashed his car near his house, the injuries left him in a coma for 73 days.
“My brain was twisted, so it caused a number of errors,” he said. “I was left unable to talk, I was unable to eat, unable to walk.”
Both were lucky to survive their injuries.
“My survival is a miracle,” said Macey. “You never think it’s going to be you. I think I thought I was invincible. But things happen so quickly… they either affect the person, or the people around them for the rest of their lives.”
Boniface urges those on the roads to be cautious. “Don’t be over confident, please don’t. Because that’s literally the worst thing that can happen. You can change someone’s life in an instant.”
Their message comes as a total of 17 died on the roads across the holiday period - the highest number since 2016. The Christmas holiday period began on December 24 and ended on January 5.
St John National operations manager, James Stewart, says its been an “extremely” busy summer with the service being called to over 200 crashes.
“There’s been a large amount of highly traumatic scenes,” he said. “We’ve been to over 70 critical, or seriously injured people who aren’t captured by the fatality statistics. And these are people whose families are going to need to make life-altering accommodations now, because we have people who are paralysed, that have injuries to limbs that will take a long time to heal.
“So we see that the fatality toll doesn’t accurately capture the true amount of tragedy out on our roads.”
NZ Police Assistant Commissioner Bruce O’Brien says it’s unfortunate to see common themes cropping up.
“Speed, and alcohol, unfortunately far too many people not wearing their safety belt.. and people still using their cell-phones while driving.”
While the official holiday period is over, he says there will still be many people heading out there on the roads this summer – and he doesn’t want to see any add to the toll.
“We’ve got to stop thinking about this as a number. We got to start thinking there’s humans that sit behind these numbers. These are sons, and daughters, mothers, fathers, uncles and aunties,” O’Brien said.
And he says there is also those who survive but are seriously injured.
“These injuries can take people months, even years to recover,” he said. “We don’t really focus on and talk about the injuries that happen, and I think that’s got to be part of the conversation as well.”
And so, these survivors, and frontline staff are urging everyone to remember; think before you act, don’t drink and drive, speed or use your phone while driving, and keep your seatbelt on.
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