THE CRASH

5-4-3-2-1-go I watched as "Big Dawg" set off for his first run, slipping and sliding down the rock shoot drop in on the Fast Track. I saw when he wet down as well, from my point of view it look like his front end washed out....didn't look serious at all, so the normal shouts of "are you all right pal" went out....after a few seconds a loud scream of "No" bellowed out. I ran down with a few others to see what was happening. Simon was in tremendous pain and still on the race course, we asked him if he could move because races were still coming down at 1 minute intervals and just squeezing by inches from his injured leg. We still didn't think it was that serious until we tried to move him and boy did he scream. At that point the racing was stopped and our first aider Steve Johnson was straight on the phone to the emergency services.

After talking to them it was apparent that someone had to meet the ambulance and guide them to the crash site so Cath Tilford and Lorna Hobbs volunteered and also helped with carying down heavy and life saving equipment. After minutes seeming like hours and hours seeming like days the ambulances finally show up, all three of them with what I could only describe as a army of paramedics, at least eight of them.  He was wearing full body armour and knee pads which they had to cut off him, thank god he was wearing them because with the amount of damage that was caused I hate to wonder what his condition would have been like if he wasn't wearing any at all. When it was time to lift the stretcher it was like a call to arms and everyone rushed down to help carry him and the equipment.....was a awesome sight to see.