Breaking the crash cycle

Editorial: Danielle Ford

Photography: Brendan McCarthy

The news that a motorcyclist aged in their 20s had become the first Victorian road fatality of 2020 less than six hours into the new year cut Leading Senior Constable Grant Healey to his core.

Not only did the thought of another rider needlessly losing their life sadden Ldg Sen Const Healey, but it brought back memories of his own motorcycle accident that occurred exactly one year and one day earlier.

The lone officer at the one-person Elmhurst Police Station rang in 2019 from a hospital bed about 200km from home after he came off his Harley-Davidson motorcycle during a group ride on 31 December 2018.

“There was a large rock that had somehow ended up in the middle of the road. I didn’t notice it until I was nearly on top of it,” Ldg Sen Const Healey said.

“By that time, I had about two seconds to make the choice to try and swerve to avoid it, or just hit it and try and take the force. I ended up hitting the rock and lost control of my bike.

“This caused me to come off the motorcycle and because of the momentum, I skidded on my back over dry grass and gravel for about 100m. I came to a stop after hitting a tree at a pretty high speed.”

The accident left Ldg Sen Const Healey in a bad way. His injuries were so severe he was airlifted to the Alfred Hospital Emergency and Trauma Centre in Melbourne.

With a severely broken ankle, dislocated shoulder and broken front and back ribs, Ldg Sen Const Healey spent the next five months off work recovering.

Ldg Sen Const Grant Healey spent five months off work after a motorcycle crash on New Year's Eve in 2018.

Despite the immense pain and long recovery he endured, the experienced rider knows things could have been much worse had he not been wearing proper protective gear.

“I didn’t lose a drop of blood in the accident because I was wearing leather gear from head to toe,” Ldg Sen Const Healey said.

“The 100m skid over grass and gravel probably would have skinned me alive if I was wearing just a t-shirt.”

Ldg Sen Const Healey also counts himself lucky to not have become part of the ‘lives lost’ statistic.

2019 was a horror year on Victorian roads, with 266 people losing their lives, compared to 213 in 2018.

Motorcyclists were a key driver in this almost 25 per cent increase in road fatalities, as 44 were killed, seven more than in 2018 and the second highest annual total in the last five years.

In his role at Elmhurst, a rural station situated in the middle of the scenic Pyrenees and Grampians regions in central Victoria, Ldg Sen Const Healey has seen his fair share of motorcycle accidents.

“It’s a really popular area for riders because of the open, winding roads and the great scenery,” he said.

“On a Saturday morning, you can hear the bikes starting to roll through town from the police station. There would be hundreds of riders passing through the town each weekend.”

It’s not just the sealed roads that draw large motorcycle crowds, with Ldg Sen Const Healey able to recall just as many accidents on off-road tracks in surrounding state forests.

He said no matter where a person is riding, it’s important to always prepare for anything and stay alert.

“As a rider myself, I know no one goes out there deliberately to come off their bike, but things happen and the situation can change in a split second,” Ldg Sen Const Healey said.

Ldg Sen Const Grant Healey knows the importance of riding with fully safety gear.

“When you go paragliding or horse riding, you don’t do it without the proper safety gear. The same thing applies to riding a motorcycle. You don’t get on and go for a ride without all the proper safety gear to protect you in case the worst happens.”

Going through the experience of a traumatic accident hasn’t curbed Ldg Sen Const Healey’s love of riding, but he said it has made him ride with added caution and changed the way he operates as a police officer responding to any motorcycle incident.

“There’s a vast difference between riding on city roads and country roads,” he said.

“The speeds are generally faster on country roads and, while it’s vital to be alert no matter where you are riding, on these country roads you need to be even more alert.

“The same goes for all road users, no matter what vehicle they are driving.”