Chapter 01

Is It Worth It

On the Road in New South Wales, Australia

Sergeant Michael Nolan is on leave with his family and he’s enjoying the drive along the mountain road. The view on their left is beautiful as they can see out over the national park for a long way. Only another few kilometres to go on the Bulli to Appin Road to be through the mountains and then back into the heavier town traffic. At least they bypassed the bumper-to-bumper long-weekend traffic on the Motorways and most of the other main roads going north. Once into Campbelltown there’s a number of local roads to get back to base. They’ll be back in their Base Married Quarters late this afternoon, if they aren’t kept too long at Bill’s place after he drops his brother and his family at their home. Michael is thinking about continuing down through Appin on the good road or to cut off near Appin Sand to go via Wedderburn. It’s a shorter lower grade road that’ll miss all of the traffic cutting through Appin to get to the southern end of Campbelltown to get onto Narellan Road to go west.

He usually goes through Appin, but he’s fed up with the coach bus tailgating him so close if the driver was any closer he’d be sitting in the van. Michael doubts he’s a second of time behind him, and not the three or four seconds the driving schools recommend. This is a good road, but there’s really nowhere to overtake anything along it and Michael is doing the legal limit of one hundred kilometres per hour, which doesn’t seem to be fast enough for the bus driver. Michael thinks, Just this curve, the bend back, and the straight. Then about two kilometres to the turn off. I think I’ll take the turn off to get this idiot off my tail as he’ll stay on this road to go into Appin.

Michael’s van is through the first curve to the left and it’s entering the curve back to the right when he sees a sports car on the other side of the road going in the other direction at a very high speed. The oncoming car is drifting wide, so it’s soon in the middle of the road. Michael goes a little more to his left in the hope the two cars can slide by each other. The other driver suddenly pulls his steering wheel to the left, and his car is immediately into a skid. The sports car slides further into Michael’s lane, but there’s now no more time for Michael to do anything before the sports car slams into the front of his van at an angle then the sports car spins off into the scrub to the left of the van. The force of the impact punches the front of the van further to the left and backwards into the bus a little right of its centre. The bus turns on the contact point with the rear of it coming around while the van is spun to the right by the bus contact so the van ends up nose into the scrub on the right side of the road with the bus across the road to block both lanes of the road.

Inside the Van

All in the van are a little tired while Pat Nolan, Michael’s son, is very tired and almost asleep. He starts to wake up when he hears his father swearing, so Pat is raising his left hand to rub his eyes when he’s thrown hard against the seatbelt at the same time there’s a loud noise instantly followed by something smashing into his side. He’s in pain, but he can’t see anything and he’s being shaken about. The movement stops, but the pain doesn’t. The air-bag in front of him deflates and Pat can now see the van has been in a crash. Pat looks down to see his left arm is broken, he’s not sure if he hit something or the air-bag broke it when it inflated. He can also see his right leg is broken. From his first aid training Pat thinks they’re simple breaks, but he isn’t sure. After undoing a button just above his belt Pat uses his right arm to put his left hand and lower arm inside his shirt to take as much weight as possible off of the arm and the break while holding it as still as possible under the circumstances. He can’t hear any sounds so he wonders if he hurt his ears.

Pat looks up, and he can tell both his parents are dead due to the way the front of the van is right up against the front seats. He can see his father’s cell phone is still in its cradle, but the cradle is no longer attached to the dashboard and it’s sitting on the floor near Pat’s feet. He undoes his seatbelt, leans over, picks up the phone, cycles through the numbers to the one he wants, and he calls the emergency number. He looks about the van while he does this, and he doesn’t like what he sees.

The phone is answered so he says, “Car crash including a bus, we need ambulances,” and he gives the GPS co-ordinates from the SatNav in the van’s dash. He finishes with, “The road’s blocked and I can’t see anyone moving about in the bus or on the road.”

After confirming the information given the operator says, “We’ve got help on the way, can you stay on the line, please?”

“I need to treat my injuries, but I can leave the phone open and in my pocket, will that do?” Pat knows this will allow them to track the phone.

“Yes. See what you can do for the others.”

“I will, but I’ll be limited in helping them due to my own injuries.”

Pat puts the phone in his shirt pocket and does the button up to keep it there. From the damage to their bodies he knows his parents and sister are dead, and he’s numb from the shock of it. He uses his right arm to help him stand up to check for a pulse on his parents and sister, but he finds none. He turns around and hops down the aisle to check out his cousin, aunt, and uncle. They’re all dead. He looks at the luggage area, but the back of the van is crushed against the back of the rear seat, so there’s no way he can get at the first aid kit. He moves back to the front of the van and is surprised to find the side door slides open without any trouble. He hops out of the van, turns, and gets out the plastic emergency triangles stored in the pocket on the back of the front passenger’s seat.

Ignoring the pain in his leg Pat hops down the road to get around the bend. He’s able to see a long way down the road, so he stops, squats on his good leg, and he sets up one of the triangles in the middle of the road to alert the traffic that may come along. This task is easy to do with one hand because he only needs to push down on the folding cross piece to straighten it to create the base then flick the switch for the blinking red LED lights in it. After standing he makes his way back to the crash. Only then does he see the other car off to the side in the scrub. Pat can’t see a way to get to the car in his current condition so he leaves it be as the ground is just too rough for him to try it. He slowly hops to the bus, around it, and down the road behind the bus. He moves a little down the road, squats again, sets up the second triangle, sighs, and faints.

Responses

When the emergency call goes out police cars near both ends of the road enter it to race down the road. Ambulances are also directed to the scene from both ends of the road, plus a few more ambulances are directed to the scene from further away so they’ll be closer if they need more on site. They’ll know once the police access the scene.

A police officer patrolling the Pacific Highway near the turn off is the first on the scene. When he comes around the last curve before the crash he sees the bus, the triangle, and the boy lying on the road. He stops near the boy, gets out, checks the boy, uses his first aid kit to stop the bleeding he can see, and he calls in to confirm the crash. He says, “I’m on the east side of the crash. I can see part of a van and a coach bus. I can’t see any movement at all. I’ve a seriously hurt boy who needs immediate medical attention. Get the ’Care Flight’ helicopter here right now!” They confirm the need for the medical helicopter service. He leaves his car in the middle of the road with the rooftop lights on to make it more obvious and to protect the boy he doesn’t wish to move.

Constable John Kent follows the trail of dripping blood back around the bus, spots the other car, and he calls in the update, looks at the bus door and adds the need for rescue service vehicles to access the injured in the bus and car. John only takes a moment to confirm the driver of the sports car is dead and is the only person in it. Over to the van and he confirms he has six dead in the van. He’s turning back to the bus when another police car arrives, it comes in from the Appin end of the road.

Senior Constable Anne Mackenzie stops her car and gets out. She looks over at Constable Kent and asks, “What have you got, John.”

He waves to the sports car, “One dead in the Ferrari over there, six dead in the van, haven’t got into the bus yet, but look at this,” and he points to the blood trail from the seat in the van, up the road to the emergency triangle, and back past the bus. He adds, “There’s another warning triangle down the road on the other side of the bus beside an unconscious boy with a broken arm and a broken leg.”

“That who the helicopter is for?” John nods yes. “OK, now the bus.”

Anne checks the van then both officers walk around to the back of the bus, climb up, and remove the rear window emergency exit so they can climb into the bus. The passengers are lying all over the place. They can see many broken limbs, but no blood. They check pulses and find them. Everyone back here is alive, but unconscious. They work their way forward. The ones nearest the front have the worst injuries, but the only dead ones are the driver and the two old ladies right behind him.

Anne gets on the radio and tells control, “There’s thirty-two injured people on the bus with three dead. A van with six dead, a car with one dead, and a badly injured boy from the van. Total of thirty-three injured and ten dead. The road is blocked, so get the ends closed off.” She turns to John, “You stay in here to watch them. If anyone wakes up keep them calm and still. You can leave when the paramedics get in here.” John nods acceptance of his orders, and Anne leaves the bus to go look at the boy. A moment later she’s kneeling beside the boy while checking his pockets for ID documents when she hears the helicopter.

The Care Flight helicopter lands on the road behind the police car, two paramedics get out, and they come over while carrying some gear. They check the boy, open the gear they have, and hook him up to monitors. Anne knows what they’ll need next, so while they work on the boy she goes to the helicopter to help another crew member to bring a stretcher to the boy. When they near the front of the police car one paramedic says, “That’s odd! The kid has a set of dog tags with all his ID info. They’re not Medi-Alert tags, but they do look like Army issue ones.”

Anne says, “He’s from the van on the other side of the bus. He came here to put up the warning sign. The van’s driver is an Army Sergeant by the name of Nolan, according to the name on his blouse. What’s the kid’s name on the tags?”

“Pat Nolan. OK, I’ll take the info on the tags as valid. That helps.” In a few minutes they have Pat in the stretcher, put the stretcher into the helicopter, and Pat is on his way to Campbelltown Hospital.

Anne looks at the bus, and she can see white uniforms in there. John is walking toward her. Sounds behind her alert her to the ambulances arriving from Bulli. People are soon leaving the bus on backboards.

Clean Up

About an hour after Constable Kent’s arrival on the scene there’s a white mid-sized van on-site with several police officers taking many photos and measurements. When they indicate to the rescue service people they can start cutting the body out of the sports car one says, “Keep an eye out for a dash-cam of some sort, and get me if you see one, please.” The men waiting to cut up the car nod yes before they get to work. The officer in charge of the investigation walks toward the van.

Her team member working in the van says, “Jan, this guy has front and rear cameras, and they look good.” Jan nods while she waves to Jack to show she heard him, as that’s good news since it means they should have some video of what happened. She loves it when someone has a camera to show them what happened.

She looks up at the bus and the man there says, “The main camera’s had it, but there may be something on the storage unit. I’m working on it.” She waves her acknowledgement of the report.

Jan walks up to where Anne and John are, and she says, “Going by the skid marks and how they ended up, I’d say the sports car was speeding then drifted wide to hit the van. The bus had to have been up the van’s arse to get smashed that way. However, the cameras will tell it all.”

Ten minutes later Jan sits up from viewing the recordings made by Michael’s car cameras, the whole story of the crash is there. There’s still more evidence to collect and her team has to fully evaluate it all, but the basic facts of the matter are now known to them.

Road Accident Analysis Unit

Jan and her team take so long on site it’s time to go off shift and head home before they return to their office. So they put everything into secure cupboards and go home. The next day they’re very busy going over everything to get a more detailed picture of what happened on the road. This includes the use of their accident simulation software.

The simulation software is run with the exact data, and it gets a result so close to the end result they know it all fits. Then they run it all with some data variations before they document their findings. They run the simulations several times, and they get the same sets of results.

Pathology reports of the three drivers’ blood tests arrive and are added to the reports. While they don’t affect the simulations they are a significant addition to the report the team writes.

Mid-morning of the third day after the crash Jan is presenting the report to the unit commander for his approval to present it to the NSW Coroner. The report includes images from the scene, the pathology reports, and their simulations. The only thing to add is Pat’s statement, which won’t be available until the doctors allow him to wake up and the police can talk to him. At the moment he’s in a medically induced coma to help with his healing. However, he’s not expected to add much to what they already have, if he adds anything at all.

Final Analysis

Jan starts her report with a map of the road. Pointing to the Appin end she says, “From the SatNav records in Casey’s Ferrari we know he was travelling from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and fifty-five kilometres per hour from soon after turning onto the road to when the crash occurred. The SatNav records from Nolan’s van show he was travelling between ninety-five and one hundred kilometres per hour from soon after entering the road. The slower speeds are on the steeper grades and the curves. This matches our interviews of his friends and work colleagues who all say he was a conservative and safe driver. The combined damage to the front of both of the vehicles matches the total energy expected of a two hundred and fifty kilometre per hour crash.”

She moves to point at photos of the cars’ front ends, then steps away from them while saying, “The pathology reports show no alcohol or other foreign substances in the blood of Nolan or Kelly, the bus driver. However, they do show significant levels of cocaine in Casey’s blood. They’re high enough to seriously impair his ability to judge things or to drive.” Jan moves to the side of a large monitor and she nods to one of the team members sitting at a desk with a laptop computer while saying, “The dash camera records from all three vehicles show Casey’s car was just on the wrong side of the road when it came around the curve and Nolan edged left to give Casey room to get by. The camera recordings from both the van and the bus show Casey suddenly reacted to seeing the van on the road. Casey’s response was to over-steer to the left. His car lost traction so the Ferrari’s slide to the right became much faster. The van had no more room or time to get out of the way of the Ferrari. The vehicles hit head-on with the Ferrari just a bit to the left of the van’s centre and at a slight angle. The collision punched the van back and a little to the right into the front of the bus, causing it to spin on the point of impact while moving across the road. The second impact caused the van to spin around to end up facing into the scrub north of the road.”

Inspector Rochester asks, “So Casey is responsible for the ten dead.”

Jan sighs then replies, “Yes, and no, Sir. Casey definitely caused the deaths of Mary Nolan, Michael Nolan, and himself. He was also a major contributor to the deaths of the others. However, our analysis of the crash shows Kelly is the main cause of all of the other deaths.” Inspector Rochester sits up a bit straighter while she adds, “All of our simulation software shows two important things. First, if Casey hadn’t pulled back left but stayed as he was his car would’ve hit the side of the van with the side of his car then bounced back to his side of the road while the van gets pushed onto the road’s shoulder. People would have been injured in the shaking around, but not killed. The second important point is if the bus had been at the proper following distance and not so close to the van the collision with the Ferrari would’ve punched the van onto the other side of the road and the bus would’ve passed between the two vehicles without hitting either of them. In that case only Casey and the two Nolan’s in the front of the van would have been killed while the other van passengers would have had minor injuries.”

Pointing to two still images, one from the van and one from the bus, Jan says, “The impact with the bus is the major cause of the deaths of the rest of the van’s passengers, the injuries to Pat Nolan, and the death of the three people in the bus. If the bus had been back where it should have been the van’s rear impact wouldn’t have happened. The others in the van died because the sudden, severe, violent changes in direction broke their necks before the air-bags could fully deploy and immobilise them. Their pathology reports list the cause of death as being broken necks.” She looks straight at Inspector Rochester as she says, “The only thing that doesn’t make sense in all this is how the boy Pat Nolan survived without a broken neck. Which is why we want to interview him.”

Rochester stands as he says, “Don’t include the last bit about the boy when you present this to the Coroner tomorrow, unless the boy wakes up and he gives you the answer. Then include it if it’s relevant.” Jan nods her akcnolwedgement, and the inspector leaves the briefing room. While walking to his office Rochester thinks about the crash and its outcomes.

A little later Rochester is still thinking about the crash while he eats his lunch. Finishing his lunch he makes a decision, and he calls the NSW Attorney General’s Office. When he gets an old friend on the phone he says, “Mark, tomorrow afternoon the report on the weekend’s big crash is going before the Coroner. You should have a solicitor who’s also a trustee there to listen to the report because someone should seek approval to be appointed to represent the boy, Pat Nolan.”

Mark asks, “Why, Colin?”

“The kid is now an orphan. The driver of the other car is from a very rich family. The kid should get some compensation for having all of his family killed by another’s negligence. Also, he’s only ten years old and is in a coma in hospital. Thus the trustee aspect. I’ll see what we can do to find some next-of-kin for him.”

“OK, Colin. I’ll get someone I trust to go.” They both hang up.

Notes

For those who don’t already know: a SatNav is the common term for a Satellite Navigation system that uses the GPS positioning systems to show the device’s current location. Most also record sets of readings on a frequent basis, thus they make a good record of what the vehicle has been doing. Most of the ones used in vehicles include maps so the driver can use them to navigate to their destinations in new areas.

In a vehicle crash the vehicles involved in the crash will have damage to them consistent with the amount of energy involved in the crash. This will vary with the speed of the vehicles, their weight, their direction of travel, and their amount of traction on the road. The speed and weight will decide the amount of kinetic energy in each vehicle while the way they’re travelling and the traction will affect how much energy passes from one vehicle to another, which will affect the way the vehicles act after the initial collision. This means when a vehicle hits a solid wall at 60 kph kilometres per hour the energy from the vehicle is that of a 60 kph car while the energy from the wall is zero, so the total energy involved is that of the car. If the wall sustains no real damage then all of the energy is absorbed by the car. In an accident where both cars hit in a head-on-collision at 60 kph then the total energy is that of 120 kph and it is split between the two cars. The resulting amount of the energy absorbed by each car in both incidents above is the same.

However, the situation is very different when other factors come into play. When a car travelling at 150 kph has a head-on-collision with a car travelling at 100 kph the total energy involved is the same as for a 250 kph collision shared between the two vehicles so each sustains the amount of damage equivalent to hitting a solid wall at 125 kph, which is the case in this story.

In the case of a collision of two vehicles travelling in the same direction the amount of energy in the crash is that of the difference between the speeds of the two vehicles and the amount of traction the vehicle hit has with the road as the hit vehicle may absorb some of the energy by rolling forward or moving sideways when struck by the other vehicle.

In the Hospital

The Care Flight helicopter takes Pat Nolan to the Campbelltown Hospital Emergency Centre where he’s examined by the doctors, put through an x-ray and MRI, then treatment is started. His main injuries are the broken arm and broken leg, but he also has a lot of bruising on his body. From the reports of his post-crash activities they don’t think he has a concussion, so they decide to sedate him to let him sleep for a few days to help with his healing. Pain killers as well as a sedative and some nutrients are in the drip they attach to him. Because they know his parents are dead they get the local NSW Family Services people involved to get a court order to provide for all aspects of his treatment and to start a search for his next-of-kin.

On the afternoon of the third day after the crash the doctors decide to let Pat wake up naturally in the morning, so they stop the sedative during the night. The next morning Pat wakes up just before the usual hospital breakfast time. The monitors note his changing vital signs and they alert the nursing staff to the changes. A nurse comes in to watch him.

A little later Pat is awake and he’s looking at the Nurse. For a few seconds he doesn’t know where he is, then he realises she’s a nurse and he’s in the hospital. Finally his memory of the crash returns and he grimaces. A doctor walks in and the Nurse says, “He’s awake, aware, and he knows his situation, Doctor. I saw it all on his face!” The Doctor nods to show he heard her report, then he gives Pat a full set of physical checks while asking a series of questions to review his mental state.

The Doctor makes notes on Pat’s chart, resets the monitors, gives the Nurse some instructions, and he goes to update Pat’s main file before he calls the police to let them know Pat is awake.

An hour later Jan walks into the room and says, “I’m on the police team investigating the crash you were in, Pat. What can you tell me?”

Pat says, “Nothing. I was napping when Dad’s swearing woke me, then all hell broke loose. Once we stopped I could see Mum and Dad were dead so I used his phone to call for help. Checked the rest of the family, all dead. I set out the warning signs, and that’s it, until today.”

“We do have enough from the cameras in the cars to sort it out. One thing none of us can work out is why you weren’t killed. I don’t mean to be morbid, but it’s an anomaly I wish to sort out.”

Pat’s response is, “I don’t really know. But I suspect it may have been how I was sitting.” Jan frowns, so he adds, “Get a boy my height, two chairs without arms which have backs about the same height as the car seats and I can show you.”

A few minutes later a boy visiting a friend is roped in to help, two chairs are brought into the room, and Pat is saying, “Put the chairs over near the wall. One against the wall with the second beside it.” Once they’re set up he has the boy sit upright in the chair by the wall and Pat says, “That’s how the rest of the family were sitting when I dozed off.” He tells a nurse, “Give him a pillow.” She does, and Pat tells the boy, “Put the pillow in the side corner of the chair and the wall. Now turn a quarter turn across the seat so you can lift your right leg up onto the edge of the seat. Slide down to have your head below the top of the chair and lean into the pillow.” A few more instructions are given to get the boy into the right position before Pat says, “That’s the position I took to go to sleep. It’s also very much like how I was when I woke up.”

Jan walks over to look at the bruises on Pat’s body, and asks, “Did you pull your left arm out of the seat belt so the belt went under your arm and not over it so it didn’t push on your neck?” Pat nods yes. “The bruises looks like you did. OK! This now makes a lot more sense.” Pat frowns. So Jan adds, “You were lower down and in the corner with support in two directions. Also, you were turned almost ninety degrees to the rest of your family. That made a huge difference to how you were thrown about in the crash. The car was punched backwards, so they came forward in their seats due to the vehicle moving quicker than they did. The hit with the bus had them slamming back into the seat and throwing them sideways at the same time. Your position had you shoved side to side with the seat right there giving you more support. When they went from forward and backward to sideways with no support you went from side to side to backward with the van side there as support. The extra head support of your position plus the change in force directions applied gave you an advantage which saved your life.”

Pat’s response is a grimace at being reminded he no longer has a family. All present recognise he’s suffering from ’survivor’s guilt.’ The Doctor asks, “Pat, what do you know about other family members. The Family Services people are searching, but they can’t find any others.”

While slumping further into the bed Pat replies, “Both Dad’s parents are dead. He and Uncle Bill were close because they had no cousins, and I know all of their aunts and uncles are dead with no kids. I don’t know of any other relatives on Dad’s side of the family at all. Although his grandparents could have some relatives back in Ireland, but I don’t know how to check on them. On Mum’s side I know her brothers, sister, and her mother are dead, but I think her father is still alive and living somewhere in Texas. That’s based on the last time Mum called him on the phone. Get a copy of the phone bills for the last six months because the only US number on it will be his.”

The Doctor and Jan both make a note of the information as the Doctor says, “I’ll pass that on to Family Services. Now, your broken limbs are simple fractures so they’ll need several weeks to heal. Because we kept you sedated for a few days I want to keep you here for a week. Pat, I’m not sure about what will happen to you after that.” Pat nods to show he heard and he understands what the doctor said, then they all leave except for the Nurse.

The Nurse pulls over a chair and asks, “Are you wondering if it’s worth living with all of your family dead?” He turns to her and nods yes. “I thought so. I had similar thoughts when my family died. I was sixteen at the time. A friend of the family spoke with me about survivor’s guilt and how you feel all alone in a situation like this. Then he gave me some good advice. He said, ‘Although you may not feel like living you should live so you can make your life a monument to those who didn’t.’ I took his advice to heart and I’ve lived it all my life, just like he did.” Pat has an odd look, so she adds, “He was one of the first members of a group of commandos who ended up as the first Special Air Service unit. He went on a few operations where a lot of his fellows didn’t return. Of his original group who transferred from his first army unit he was the only one to live through the war. Many of them had families, so he spent most of his post war life helping the families of those who didn’t return, until he got so ill he had to leave England for a warmer climate.”