When I read Woody’s story, I felt like I was reading a biography of my own life. Every chapter brought back to me horrible memories of almost the exact experiences I went through after my own workplace accident many years ago. Physical and emotional memories of pain, loss, anger, frustration, hopelessness, bitterness, depression etc etc.
Sadly, I wish these were all just memories, but they’re not, they’re still everyday emotions I am living with right now. Thirty-five years after the event.
I was 19 and had just started an amazing career with the Australian Army, when I made a choice to get in my car and drive it 12 hours from a training course back to my base, whilst suffering the effects of extreme fatigue. I fell asleep, crashed the car, and destroyed every future life dream I had. I have spent every second from that day living with quadriplegia.
This story is a reflection into how difficult I have made my life, just because I made that one stupid decision in a rushed moment in time. Life is all about choices, and as humans, we’re not expected to get them all correct the first time. Mistakes are often how we learn. But making a potential life-changing mistake at work because you made the wrong choice, when you already know that there is a correct way of doing things, is not a choice you want to get wrong the first time. Trust me, I have lived it, trust Woody, he has lived it, trust both of us, it’s just not worth it.
If this booklet doesn’t make YOU stop and think twice about the choices YOU can make when real risk is at hand, then I don’t know what will.