Tree near miss

By Tania Martin
A MT EVELYN man narrowly escaped serious injury last week after a tree fell and crushed the roof of his four-wheel drive while he was driving home from work.
Chris Nash, 59, was driving along Monbulk Road near Belgrave shortly after 2pm on Wednesday, 9 August when the tree fell on his car.
Emerging from the wreckage with only a laceration on his hand and some minor soft tissue damage to his neck, Mr Nash said he was surprised he wasn’t more seriously injured.
“When I got out of the car and saw the damage I realised how lucky I was,” he said.
Mr Nash said when the tree fell he didn’t know what had happened but he knew that something had hit his car.
“I just sat in the car after it happened thinking that I had been hit by a truck.
“I didn’t know what had happened. All I knew was that there was a horrendous bang and then I couldn’t see anything, not because I blacked out but because the roof had caved in,” he said.
Mr Nash said a woman from The Patch who was driving toward him on Monbulk Road saw the tree falling and came to his assistance.
“She must have been terrified of what she might see after witnessing the tree crush my car but still she came up to help me,” he said.
Mr Nash’s wife, Gail, said when she saw the wrecked car the next day, she thanked God that Chris wasn’t more seriously injured, especially as the couple will be celebrating their 29th wedding anniversary next month.
Mrs Nash said it made her sick when she saw the car because if she had been a passenger she would have been crushed.
She said the passenger seat was pushed all the way into the back seat of the car.
“We are very lucky and we just thank our lucky stars that he wasn’t more seriously hurt,” Mrs Nash said.
Following the accident the Nashes went and brought a Tattslotto ticket because Chris was so lucky not to have been seriously injured.
Mr Nash said the ambulance officers and the police were marvellous and that the police took all of his belongings including his house keys out of the car and kept them at the station for safe keeping.
He said the ambulance officers were very caring, compassionate and understanding and told him how fortunate he was not to be more seriously hurt.