Liam Ganter’s life came to a sudden stop earlier this year after a high-speed motorcycle crash on the Sunshine Coast left the 22-year-old with a traumatic brain injury, multiple fractures and weeks in hospital.<\/p>\n
Now, with the holiday period underway, Mr Ganter is using his recovery to warn others about the risks of speeding and riding without proper protective gear.<\/p>\n
“I was late to work, heavily speeding, wasn’t making the smartest decision,” Mr Ganter said.<\/p>\n
“I don’t actually remember it.”<\/p>\n
What he does know now comes from police reports and what others later told him.<\/p>\n
“A car merged across [the road] and we collided at about 100 kilometres an hour,” Mr Ganter said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I hit them.”<\/p>\n
Mr Ganter said he was resuscitated at the scene by witnesses.<\/p>\n
“Thank God there was people there that knew what to do,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It wasn’t pretty.”<\/p>\n
His learner-approved motorcycle was destroyed.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liam Ganter spent weeks in hospital following the collision. (Supplied: Liam Ganter)<\/p>\n
Months of recovery<\/p>\n
Mr Ganter spent 25 days in hospital across multiple wards, including close to a week in intensive care.<\/p>\n
He suffered fractures to his left hand and wrist, multiple fractures to his right shoulder, deep lacerations, extensive road rash and a traumatic brain injury.<\/p>\n
“I’ve got five broken bones and now only one good limb \u2026 everything else that comes with all of the brain-injury stuff \u2014 the memory issues, cognition problems,” he said.<\/p>\n
He experienced post-traumatic amnesia for more than two weeks and months of ongoing cognitive difficulties.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t make new memories for 18 days,” Mr Ganter said.<\/p>\n
Doctors have told him the full extent of his recovery remains uncertain.<\/p>\n
“I’m not going to be 100 per cent ever again,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Ganter said a gift of proper riding boots from his grandparents weeks before the crash likely reduced the severity of his injuries.<\/p>\n
“If I didn’t have the boots, my leg injuries would be so much worse,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On the road to recovery, Liam Ganter says his attitude has changed. (Supplied: Liam Ganter)<\/p>\n
He said his perspective had changed when asked what he would now say to the driver involved in the crash.<\/p>\n
“If you’d asked me a couple of months ago, I would have given you a very different answer,” Mr Ganter said.<\/p>\n
“Today, I’d probably thank them \u2026 it’s given me a chance to completely reinvent myself.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liam Ganter\u2019s mother, Stacey McDermott, cared for Liam in hospital. He now lives with her as he continues his rehabilitation. (Supplied: Liam Ganter)<\/p>\n
‘The consequences are not equal’<\/p>\n
Mr Ganter’s mother, Stacey McDermott, travelled from Hobart to be by his side.<\/p>\n
“The biggest impact on her was my memory,” he said.<\/p>\n
“She would leave the hospital room for five minutes and come back and it was like it was the first time I’d seen her in months.<\/p>\n
“I’m lighting up 12 times a day to see her for the first time.”<\/p>\n
Mr Ganter said the psychological impact on his mother had been significant \u2014 something he said weighed heavily on him.<\/p>\n
“The guilt that’s given me is worse than any of the injuries,” he said.<\/p>\n
Despite the injuries and long rehabilitation ahead, Mr Ganter said he “absolutely” planned to ride again.<\/p>\n
“I’m still scared \u2026 but I want to conquer that fear.”<\/p>\n
But his advice to others would be to “just stop and think”.<\/p>\n
“It’s so much better to get a little slap on the wrist from your boss for being five minutes late than what I had to go through,” Mr Ganter said.<\/p>\n
“The impact on everyone else and the years of rehab I’m going to have to do.<\/p>\n
“The consequences are not equal.”<\/p>\n
Police echo warning<\/p>\n
Queensland Police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said Mr Ganter’s experience and warning came as road deaths continued to climb during the Christmas travel period.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mark Wheeler says the number of offences this holiday period has been disappointing. (Supplied: Mark Wheeler)<\/p>\n
He said motorcyclists remained among the most vulnerable road users, with more than 72 riders and pillion passengers killed in Queensland this year.<\/p>\n
Chief Superintendent Wheeler said police strongly encouraged motorcyclists to go beyond the legal minimum and wear as much protective gear as possible.<\/p>\n
“Helmets, clothing, boots and gloves will at least give you a chance [of not] suffering a serious injury,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said enforcement alone would not solve the road toll.<\/p>\n
“It comes back to personal responsibility,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s about the decisions you make before you get behind the wheel of a car, before you get on a motorcycle, thinking about how your family would feel if something went wrong.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liam Ganter’s life came to a sudden stop earlier this year after a high-speed motorcycle crash on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,199991,199990,64303,44,1158,10587,97686,11942,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-369191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-motorbike-protective-gear","tag-motorbike-safety","tag-motorcycle-crash","tag-news","tag-police","tag-road-safety","tag-speeding","tag-sunshine-coast","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}