Survivors turn trauma into life lessons

Tuesday, 7 May 2024

To mark National Road Safety Week 2024, the Department for Infrastructure and Transport has released a new social media video featuring powerful interviews with road crash survivors – reminding everyone to make safe and responsible decisions while on the road.

For Holly Scott, reliving the worst moment of her life is a painful and emotional journey, but it is one that she feels is an important story to share.

Holly had just turned 22 and was driving to her boyfriend’s house in the Adelaide Hills when she swerved to avoid a kangaroo and crashed into a tree. The force of the impact left her with critical injuries and her car barely recognisable.

“I was a street away from his house and my car wrapped around a tree. I took the full impact on my side hitting the tree. The whole street was lined with emergency services trying to save my life,” said Ms Scott.

Holly was rushed to hospital with several broken bones and bleeding in the brain.

“It nearly took my life. I now devote my life to educating about road safety and wanting to show people that you’re not invincible on the road and how easily a car crash can change your life.”

While her physical injuries have healed, the trauma and anxiety has never gone away. After a month in hospital, Holly had to learn how to walk again and was determined to use her experience and story to educate others about the importance of road safety.

“It breaks my heart the fatalities on the road – it’s not just a number, it could’ve been me. There are people that I know that are in that number. It frustrates me that people don’t take it seriously. It frustrates me that the number keeps rising. I can’t understand that.”

Holly joined the Road Awareness Program (RAP) last year and has shared her emotional story to hundreds of students across the state. Her key message is that no one is invincible, and that a split-second mistake or lapse in judgement is all that it takes for your life to change forever.

Yudhi’s drive for change

Yudhi Mohan-Ram spent 46 days fighting for his life in hospital after a horror motorcycle crash the day before his birthday.

“I don’t want another person to go through the pain I go through on a daily basis or the pain that my family goes through on a daily basis,” he said.

Yudhi had travelled along the road home many times before, but on 25 October 2002, a P-plater ran a stop sign and struck him. He was thrown 25 metres from his bike and broke both his legs, several ribs, his wrist and damaged his voice box.

Yudhi’s wife and daughter were driving home when they came across the crash and saw paramedics working on him. The father was rushed to hospital where he fell into a coma, doctors told his family that he had a 10% chance of survival.

More than two decades on and the father of three is still recovering from his physical and psychological injuries – suffering from regular panic attacks and anxiety.

“I can’t attend (my daughters') sporting events just because of the dust involved. It effects my lungs and anxiety associated with it. As much as my two daughters weren't born at the time of the crash, it still impacts them.”

Determined to make a difference, Yudhi joined the Road Awareness Program to educate young road users about the consequences of their actions when driving. As part of the program, Yudhi has spoken to thousands of students and has left a lasting impact.

“I do remember that at one of the presentations, a kid came up and said, 'I got my licence today and I was about to go and do a burnout' and he said, 'I saw the presentation and I’m not going to do a burnout,'” he said.

While he still lives with the challenges of his injuries and trauma, Yudhi has found a new purpose in advocating for road safety in an effort to make sure that no one else goes through the pain that he and his family has endured.

“Road Safety Week is one way to highlight it, but it's something that needs to be done every single time we get into the car,” he said.

Watch a video featuring Holly and Yuhdi courageously revisiting their experiences with road trauma.

Learn more about National Road Safety Week.

Download the full interview, and the interview transcript.