Driver beats tree

By Kath Gannaway
A YOUNG Three Bridges woman has told of the horror of being trapped in her car, after hitting a fallen tree on Thursday night.
The incident which miraculously left Lydia Rayner with just a sore finger, has raised concerns about top-heavy road-side trees with root systems weakened in the sodden soil.
Ms Rayner, 21, was driving home on the Little Yarra Road around 7.30pm, when she said she saw a blurr of movement above her in the dark as a huge gum crashed onto the road.
Upper Yarra SES volunteer Russell Wulf said Ms Rayner, a vet nurse who was on her way home from Seville, was within .0 of a second of being crushed under the tree.
Ms Rayner told the Mail she was driving under the speed limit but had no time to react. “I just saw this blurr, and next thing I went over the top of it and my car landed on its side,” she said.
She said she was trapped and frightened.
“I couldn’t get the seatbelt undone and could smell fumes and was worried the car was going to go on fire,” she said.
She tried unsuccessfully to kick the window out but managed to open the sun-roof and had her hand out when another motorist came to help, releasing the seatbelt and helping her through the sunroof.
Mr Wulf said SES members administered first-aid while they waited for an ambulance and described Ms Rayner’s escape as solely down to luck and the narrowest margin of timing.
“How do you be aware of this sort of thing … you can’t,” he said.
“The only advice I can give is slow down on windy days, and be alert”.
He said it took the SES an hour to clear the road with the help of a local farmer and his tractor.
Three Bridges resident Bob Sanders is renewing calls for action to be taken to stabilise trees which are leaning towards roads in the area.
“The ground is soaked, and after years of drought, all the strength has gone,” he said.
Mr Sanders said he had contacted VicRoads on three occasions about overhanging trees and alerted them to the potential for a fatality.
“We have been lucky for 12 years that it has been dry,” he said.
“I started talking to VicRoads a year ago, and told them when we get rain we will be in trouble … at some stage trees will be falling down.”
Mr Sanders said while he wasn’t advocating a lunar landscape, there needed to be a return to the maintenance programs of decades ago when, he said, it was mandatory that all trees overhanging the road were cut back.
“There just needs to be some common sense applied or someone will get killed,” he warned.
Ms Rayner said she was stunned by what had happened and amazed at the response from everyone around her.
“There were 30 people around me – SES, police, neighbours … the community is amazing,” she said.
Ms Rayner said she wanted to thank the Healesville man who rescued her.
“He said even if the car was on fire, I would have got you out.”
The Mail had not received a response from VicRoads by deadline.