Life changed in an instant

Mt Barker man Lyndon Halls remembers lying bleeding and injured in the passenger seat of a wrecked car, trying to piece together exactly how he got there and contemplating how his life was about to change forever. 

Earlier that day, the car was travelling along a rural road.

Mr Halls, who was 29 at the time, said he never thought his life would completely change moments later when the driver lost control and collided with a tree.

“I woke up and it was dark, but my memory was (we were driving) up around one or two o’clock in the afternoon beforehand,” he said. 

“I started to move (but) down from (my waist), I couldn’t feel anything.”

Mr Halls said he couldn’t remember every detail after the crash, drifting in and out of consciousness as he lay in the mangled wreck while first responders worked to remove him and the driver from the car.

“I remember them cutting the roof off, my jeans off, (and) then I woke up in the Naracoorte Hospital ... then I woke up in an airplane from the Royal Flying Doctors,” he said. 

As he was rushed into hospital, Mr Halls made a comment to one of the doctors about walking, to which the doctor remarked he would likely be leaving in a wheelchair. 

“My idea of a wheelchair was that someone has to push you around for the rest of your life,” Mr Halls said.

Mr Halls said he was in “constant pain” while in hospital and didn’t care whether he died.

“My spine from my thoracic to my lower lumbar, it was shattered,” he said. 

Mr Halls was told he would be a paraplegic, unable to move the lower half of his body for the rest of his life and that he would have to re-learn how to do most things again, including going to the toilet and moving around his house. 

But he was determined to grow from the experience, rather than complain about it.

Mr Halls said prior to the crash he turned to alcohol every weekend to feel included and medicate his anxiety disorder.

But he has been sober for 26 years now, turning to body-building and healthy living and choosing to maintain a positive outlook on life.

As of Monday, September 11, 79 people have died on SA roads in 2023, with 588 sustaining serious life-changing injuries.

Mr Halls said now when he watches shows like RBT with his family, he feels frustrated that the message isn’t getting through to drive safely and follow the rules.