A motorcyclist says he watched his life flash before his eyes as strangers raced to free him from beneath a car after a horror multi-vehicle crash in Brisbane.
Tyler Wiebe, 46, became trapped under a vehicle with a tyre pressed into his chest on Gympie Rd at Kedron on Wednesday morning before a group of Good Samaritans lifted the vehicle high enough to pull him free.
The father-of-two says he thought he was about to die before strangers rushed in and lifted the car off him.
“There is probably five seconds left that I had before I think I was dead,” Wiebe said from his hospital bed.
He suffered multiple broken ribs, a shattered sternum, fractured vertebrae and a collapsed lung in the crash.
Wiebe was riding his motorcycle to work and had stopped at a red light behind another car when, he says, a vehicle suddenly mounted the curb and ploughed through traffic towards him.
“I fell off the bike and then the car kept coming,” he said. “Rolled right up on top of me. I was being dragged.”
When the vehicle finally stopped, Wiebe’s head and chest were trapped underneath.
“I was just trying to flail my legs as much as possible, just to let people know I was there,” he said.
As he lay pinned beneath the vehicle, Wiebe said his thoughts quickly turned to his wife and daughters as he could feel himself fading under the crushing weight of the car pressing into his chest.
“Wife and two kids. I’m like, not here,” he said with tears in his eyes. “And then it was like, man, I’m dying. This is it.”
The four-vehicle crash left him with devastating injuries, including a shattered sternum, fractured vertebrae and collarbone, a collapsed lung and all but two ribs broken.
He believes his full-face motorcycle helmet saved his life after becoming wedged beneath the vehicle and helping absorb some of the weight.
“The helmet, definitely without that, it would have been 100 per cent gone,” he said. “That full-face helmet saved my life there, too.”
Then a group of Good Samaritans sprinted towards the wreckage. The bystanders lifted the car high enough for Wiebe to be dragged free before paramedics arrived.
Video from the scene captured the dramatic rescue as a group of strangers gathered around the wrecked vehicle and worked together to raise it off the trapped rider.
“Split second later, car lifts up and I’m pulled out,” Wiebe said. “I wouldn’t be here without them, right? Just so thankful, I get more time with my daughters, more time with my family. A second lease on life, so just thank you. Thank you.”
Wiebe, originally from Canada, became a citizen earlier this year on Australia Day. As he recovers in hospital, he said the actions of the strangers who stopped to help reinforced why he loves calling Australia home.
“I’ve been proud to be here from the moment we landed,” he said. “This just further cements it.”
The keen ice hockey player, who plays for the Boondall Rhinos, said support from the community has been overwhelming as he begins a long recovery.
“Everyone is stepping up and offering, ‘hey is there anything we can do’?” he said.
For now, he is taking things one day at a time, but doubts he will ever ride a motorcycle again.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “I think this is my last time.”
