BLACK smoke billowed from the wreckage and burning hot petrol spilled out of the tank. Lying beneath it was Allan Smeaton.
The 53-year-old from Wyndham Vale later thought “shaking like a leaf” was the right phrase to describe the lurching anxiety, with the car appearing likely to explode any second.
But with both his arms stretched through the tangled steel to support the head and jaw of an elderly man trapped inside, he didn’t have time to think about the wording.
“There was petrol coming under me at the time, I could feel my back getting wet and my runners had melted, but I tried to keep the old boy comfortable,” he recalls.
“If I showed panic, the old boy was going to panic.”
Driving past the corner of Parramatta and Tarneit roads in Werribee last Wednesday morning, the off-duty SES volunteer and his wife, Elizabeth, saw two cars crash and one land on its side.
Mr Smeaton jumped out and dived beneath the car, where an elderly couple was trapped within. He knew he had to keep the man’s head still in case of spinal injuries. “The old guy was in a precarious position – thought he was a goner – and I slid my hands underneath,” he recalls.
“I called for someone to grab me a knife, because if worse came to worse I would have tried to cut the seatbelts. If this car goes up, what could I do?”
Mr Smeaton lay on the ground holding him for 15 minutes until the fire brigade came and sprayed foam on the scene. But for Mr Smeaton, it felt like hours.
“The crowd was screaming, everyone was panicking . . . I was frightened. The petrol burned me on the arm. I’m still a little shaken by it.”
“My arms were aching, I can tell you. It took about five years off my own life,” he laughs.
Werribee CFA has extended a vote of thanks to Mr Smeaton. “The old boy and both other passengers turned out good, which made me feel 10 times better,” Mr Smeaton says.
“I guess I’d do it for anybody. I’d do it again.”
