Cadmiel ’Tibby’ Duscas was not only given a second chance at life after surviving a horrific car crash – but has been spared what was expected to be a certain jail term.
Instead he was ordered by a magistrate to devise a road-safety campaign.
Cameron Lucadou-Wells found Duscas and his four miraculously-intact passengers have a powerful message for other young road-users.
THE sounds and smells of their near-death crash still haunt the occupants of ‘Tibby’ Duscas’s now-unsalvageable Holden Commodore.
In one out-of-control moment, an intoxicated Duscas had nearly killed himself and four friends and siblings in a spinning, rolling crash on Pound Road, Narre Warren South, on 20 May last year.
All had grown up together on the same Noble Park street; suddenly they were all hospitalised.
Last week, they were given an unusual homework assignment by magistrate Greg Connellan – to spread a road-safety message to deter young drivers from harming themselves and others on the roads.
It was in lieu of Duscas spending up to 12 years in jail.
Duscas – with the help of his victims – are more than happy to send a message.
They want to stop others learning what they learnt the hard way.
They’re planning a campaign on Facebook, visiting schools with a road trauma group and getting out into national and community media.
Physically they seem unscathed but have acute memories of their near-death experience – the frightening crunch of torn, pounded metal, blood, dust and leaking fuel.
Friend Nicole De Fevre had multiple cuts, including a “chunk of meat” taken out of her foot.
She said she’s been plagued by nightmares, waking up screaming in the middle of the night.
“At the accident, we were in shock but the next night it came back to us,” she said.
“I was screaming every night – seeing the car and hearing the noise.
“I thought we are going to die.”
Friend Anthony Pavouris broke a rib and his spine and suffered a punctured lung.
He remembers lying in his hospital bed unsure of how extreme his injuries were.
He’s now unemployed, unable to perform lifting at his previous warehousing job.
He says he doesn’t let anyone drive him in a car any more.
He is haunted by the sight of Duscas’s brother Daniel lying semi-conscious with his face against a still-hot exhaust pipe.
He had a punctured lung and skin grafts for the resultant burns.
“I felt the burning but I was knocked out,” Daniel recalls.
“I couldn’t do anything to move. My eyes were closed, just semi-conscious.”
Duscas’s sister Naomi ’escaped’ with a broken rib and tooth.
Duscas himself had been resuscitated at the scene by an off-duty paramedic.
He was in a hospital induced coma for several hours as doctors monitored a swollen pericardial sac near his heart.
“I don’t remember the whole night. I woke up (in hospital) to my parents’ faces. They were in tears.”
He was wracked with self-hatred for hurting and imperilling his friends and family.
He later learnt how distraught his mother was to get an early-morning call to learn three of her children were in hospital.
“I was in a dark place but later I realised how happy I am to be alive.
“The engine was barely still in the car. There was just one wheel left.
“We could have all been paralysed or killed.”
He has paid back a resident for $2400 damage to their fence and garden and is paying back the cost of replacing a $3600 power pole.
The night before last week’s court hearing over the matter, Duscas struggled to sleep, knowing he faced near-certain jail time.
Suffice to say, the horrors have created a vivid wake-up call.
Duscas now sees young people going out, taking risks as “complete idiots”.
He knows that as “stupid kids” before the crash, he and his friends didn’t take road safety that seriously.
“That’s what makes me thankful for that experience.
“We were just stupid kids before. I just disregarded the safety of family and friends.
“I used to speed up and try to get one car ahead. Now I think where does that get you?”
Duscas’s injured friend Anthony said it’ll take scare tactics to make their peers realise road safety is not “bull”.
“We need to scare them before they get in their cars.”
When asked what message they’d like to send to their peers, Duscas said: “You’re not invulnerable”.
His brother chimes in: “Welcome to reality”.
