IT has been just over four years since a lapse in concentration almost cost Tony Beattie his life.
The husband and father of four grown boys, who manages a large scale grain farm outside Meandarra in southern Queensland, was heading home at about 5pm in late June 2014 when his world shifted.
“I was just driving along one of our back boundaries and I was looking at a spray rig working out in the paddock,” he said.
“I was thinking about where I would move it next and I just wasn’t concentrating. We had recently had the road graded and there was gravel pile in the middle of the road. I swerved to miss it.”
Traveling at about 90km an hour, the ute clipped the edge of the gravel and rolled three times before landing back on its wheels.
Tony was conscious but unable to move.
“I was able to grab the UHF and call the bloke doing the spraying and he called 000,” he said.
It took four hours to cut Tony out of the ute. At 9pm he was airlifted by CareFlight to Toowoomba where he underwent major surgery before being flown to Brisbane.
His injuries were horrific and his family were advised that he may not survive.
“I broke nearly everything down the right side of my body - both my legs, my pelvis, collarbone and all my ribs bar two on the right,” he said. “I shattered my shoulder blade, I had a collapsed lung...I wasn’t in a good way.”
Ultimately, Tony would spend ten days in ICU in Brisbane and three months in hospital.
Once home, recovery was slow.
“It took about two years,” he said.
“I am all recovered now and back at work but there are little things that will never heal. But I am alive.”
With the four year anniversary of his accident having just passed, Tony is keen to share what the experience taught him.
He said the accident had made him more conscious of his surroundings on the farm, especially when driving, and given him a heightened awareness of safety around his staff.
“We’ve all done it - driving around looking at other things and thinking about things that need to be done,” he said.
“But we can’t afford to lose concentration. I’m not perfect but I really try to be more aware when I am driving and look at what is in front of me.”
Harvest was an important time to focus on safety, he said.
“I can have 20 or 30 blokes here at harvest and I really try to get the message across and pull them up if they aren’t concentrating,” he said.
Crucially, Tony said he’d also learned to slow down.
“I don’t rush around now. You can’t really get anywhere quicker so you may as well take an extra 30 seconds and get there safely.”
Tony said he was also aware of the toll his accident had taken on his family.
“I went through a lot of pain from the accident but my wife, Carolyn, went through a lot worse than me,” he said.
“I was that close to losing everything. People need to be aware that it can happen so quickly. They need to concentrate and keep an eye on what they are doing.”