By Molly Magennis
A Newport resident has been recognised by Australia’s Governor-General for a selfless act of bravery during a significant road accident seven years ago.
Paul Ewert received a commendation for brave conduct for his actions on October 26 2015, when he helped pull an injured person from a burning car near Invergordon, Victoria.
Mr Ewert, a train driver for Pacific National Trains, was travelling in a vehicle with two of his colleagues when a semi-trailer driving in the opposite direction crossed over the central lane and collided with the vehicle.
The impact of the collision threw the vehicle down an embankment on the opposite side of the road, causing it to catch on fire. Mr Ewert’s passenger door popped open slightly and he was able to escape.
Another driver who had swerved to avoid the collision came to his aid, and the two began to pull Mr Ewert’s colleague Joel, who appeared semi-conscious, out from the burning car.
Mr Ewert said the car was fully engulfed in flames in a number of minutes, but that all he could concentrate on was saving his mate.
“Well, there was no other option but straight away to try the doors and try and get him out….. I couldn’t care less really that the car was on fire,” he said.
“Fortunately the back window was smashed and we managed to get him out.
“All I was caring about was getting him out, the fire was sort of just something that was there but it didn’t really matter.”
He sustained a serious injury to his pelvis from instinctively putting his leg forward before the semi-trailer collided with his vehicle, although he said this action probably saved his life.
“You know when you’re driving in a car in the passenger seat, and all of a sudden you see something happen, you sort of instinctively as though you’ve got to break yourself,” he said.
“It meant that the rest of my body didnt go everywhere when ythe hit happened because my leg got pushed back through my pelvis because I had my leg sort of straight.”
Mr Ewert doesn’t think much of his actions that day, but just said he did what he had to do.
“The fact is, I was there involved in it, I was a victim…. I had no choice but to participate did I? So I just did what I had to do.”
