Doug Wright’s truck plunged into a ditch after Clyde Rowley swerved into him.

The driver who caused the accident walked away with just a few cuts and bruises. But when they spoke for the first time in October, four years after the crash, Doug couldn’t believe how much the other man had suffered.

In the half-light of dawn immediately after the collision, a shellshocked Clyde Rowley walked over to the truck he had swerved into on the road between the Bowen Basin and Rockhampton, sending it crashing down a three-metre bank.

Doug, trapped halfway out of the door with the front of the truck crushing his right side, told him to “f*** off!” Searing pain was shooting through his right side and he had no feeling at all from the knee down.

“I wasn’t thinking right,” the 52-year-old says now. “I’d never been in pain, although I thought I had. I had tears in my eyes.”

Doug, now 52, spent four months in hospital and returned home on a morphine drip, unable to even use the toilet without his wife’s help.Source:Supplied

He had to wear a huge frame on his leg and thought he would never walk again.Source:Supplied

He would later find out his pelvis had split in half and his knee had been smashed in by the dash. It took almost four hours for the emergency services to cut him free and airlift him to MacKay hospital, since they feared he could have internal bleeding.

The former fly-in-fly-out miner spent four months in hospital on a morphine drip and underwent 50 hours of operations before returning to his Brisbane home, where he needed round-the-clock care from his wife.

Before the accident, Doug had lived an action-packed life, working seven days on, seven days off, waterskiing and competitive rock ‘n’ roll dancing with his spouse. “Life was going swimmingly,” he told news.com.au. “I had a wonderful relationship with my wife. I’d just started waterskiing, my kids were about to leave home. I thought life was bliss. Then one day it came to a crashing end.”

Doug didn’t know what to do with himself any more, and by early 2015, his marriage had broken down. “I needed a new hip and a new knee,” he said. “I thought I’d never walk again. I was taking 25 different tablets a day.

Incredibly, Clyde walked away from his car completely unharmed.Source:Supplied

It took four hours to get Doug out of the car where he lay crushed and in terrible pain.Source:Supplied

“She had to do everything, she helped me go to the toilet. She was, and is, a pretty amazing woman. She was running her bookkeeping business, we had one son still at school, a lot of clients dropped off because she couldn’t do the work.
“It put a lot of stress on our relationship. Who knows if the relationship would have lasted if it hadn’t been for the crash but she needed some time away from it.”

Doug moved to the Sunshine Coast and worked on rebuilding his life. He began reading about other people with disabilities achieving great things and slowly learning to walk with a stick, although his right leg still only moves around 30 degrees.

“Things aren’t easy. I walk on the beach, meditate, clear my head and read and write. Otherwise you go over and over things again. I’ve met a new girl and I’ve got great friends who’ve been my rock. I speak at a police seminar every month.”

In October, Doug decided to contact Clyde. He’d wanted to speak to him for some time, but his lawyers had advised it could affect his claim to compensation.

Doug’s pelvis split in half and his right knee shattered.Source:Supplied

When the pair finally spoke in October, Clyde revealed he had been wracked with guilt and fallen into a depression.Source:Supplied

“On reflection, I think it would have made us both feel a lot better. The first time we spoke was on Skype. I said, ‘How you going?’ He was pretty upset, he had tears in his eyes, this big burly miner.

“I consoled him, I said, ‘Mate, it’s OK.’ He was relieved.

“I didn’t know what place he was in. I didn’t realise how much anguish he went through, he didn’t go to work for two years. He thought I hated him. I’ve come out of it a lot better than he did.”

The guilt had sent 35-year-old Clyde into a depression that tore him apart, and his first conversations with Doug will form part of a short film screening later this month, when the two men will meet face-to-face for the first time.

“It has been difficult to overcome my experience with what happened,” Clyde, from Rockhampton, told news.com.au. “I’m suffering at the moment from depression and anxiety. However, since I’ve spoken with Doug I’ve found it easier to deal with.

“I don’t take things for granted any more and I look at situations differently, and I’m changing my mindset.”

Hearing that he has been forgiven has been vital. Doug hopes he can help Clyde and others through writing and giving talks as he works on his own future. “I think opportunity comes out of adversity. I’m in a better place than I’ve ever been in my life.

“We all have bad days, now I can get over them a heck of a lot better.”

The Crash Survivor, a short film presented by PLGRM Media, premieres on Thursday 15 December in Melbourne followed by a Q&A panel discussion. Get tickets here.

Doug, pictured before the accident, had to accept his former life as an action man, FIFO miner was over, but he has managed to remain positive.Source:Supplied