With the coming of January, the Healesville community pauses for a moment of recognition for two ambulance drivers who died on their way to attending an emergency on 4 January 22 years ago.
Robert Bland and Phillip Oakley received a call to help a man and a woman who had driven off the road along the Black Spur.
Both men climbed into their ambulance and headed out from the Healesville depot for what would be their last emergency call.
Inspector at Victoria Police Sammantha Knight was one of the first units on the scene.
“It came up over the police radio that there had been a collision and an ambulance was involved, so we didn’t know the extent of it immediately,” Ms Knight said.
“We obviously saw the extent of the collision with the ambulance, that it had gone off the road.”
“It was immediately identifiable that there was no way anyone could survive that particular type of collision,” she said.
According to Ms Knight the ambulance had gone off the road and hit a tree, leaving the cabin smashed in.
“It was really horrific to be honest,” Ms Knight said.
“There was another ambulance that turned up that was the colleagues of Phil and Bob.”
“It had a lasting traumatic impact for all of us there because you can’t unsee some of the things that we are exposed to as emergency services workers,” Ms Knight said.
“No amount of training can really prepare you.”
At the time of the accident, the welfare support for emergency services was not as thorough as it is today.
Ms Knight said, “We did a debrief with other VicPol members where we sat there and talked about what we saw and how we felt, albeit it was many weeks after the incident.”
“The impact it had on me lasted for quite a few years afterwards,” Ms Knight said.
“Every time I had to drive through that black spur whether I was on or off duty, it was a constant reminder that that particular bend was where Phil and Rob had lost their lives.”
Ms Knight was particularly shaken by the uniforms of the ambulance drivers.
“You just swing into action because that’s your job. It is what you are trained to do. Take control, assess the risks and do what you need to do,” Ms Knight said.
“But when you see another uniform involved, another emergency service, I think it hits us all pretty hard.”
“We all want to come home from our jobs at the end of the day.”
Despite having incidents of her own whilst serving over thirty years in the police force such as broken vertebrae and a broken sternum as a result of that collision, Ms Knight wouldn’t change jobs.
I have been in the job a long time and have had my ups and downs but I have really loved everything that I’ve done,” Ms Knight said.
“I’ve been fortunate to be able to branch out into different areas within Victoria Police and I have to say that I have really loved my 31 years in the force.”
Business owner Phillip Wright attended the first accident that Robert Bland and Phillip Oakley were on their way to.
Mr Wright was driving along the black spur to drop off a delivery when he saw a man and a woman who had been injured as a result of their car running off the road.
Alarmed to see a car down the embankment, Mr Wright pulled over and went to the couple’s aid, placing a call that was to be later received by Mr Bland and Mr Oakley.
Mr Wright said, “I was up on top of the spur, and a guy jumped out in front of my car to wave me down, and I stopped when I saw that the man’s car was down off the side of the mountain.”
“I grabbed my mobile phone and rang the emergency services, and they said an ambulance would be on the way, so I just stayed with the people because there was a young lady stuck in the car, and I administered as much first aid as I could,” Mr Wright said.
“The young fellow was in shock, and I was trying to keep him calm for nearly two hours.”
After hours of waiting with the couple, a police motorcyclist rode up to Mr Wright.
“He told me I would have to wait a bit longer and go down through Narbethong,” Mr Wright said.
“He then elaborated about the two ambulance drivers losing their lives on the way up to this particular crash.
“I can see the accident like it was yesterday and to sit there with the people that were injured for a good two hours before I got notified of what had happened,…it has just really stuck in my head.”
While it was shocking for Mr Wright to see the injured couple and their off-roaded car down the mountain, it is the lost life of the two ambulance drivers that is of most concern to him.
“It was a shock to see the couple down the mountain, but I can live with that. They are still alive,” Mr Wright said.
“But for the emergency services to be on their way to attend to them because I had rung in the call and for those ambo guys to not get there…they should be able to go to an accident and come home afterwards.”
After the accidents, Mr Wright sold his business and to this day refuses to drive along the black spur.
“It was starting to become an absolute nightmare for me just driving the roads up there, ” Mr Wright said.
“I had had a close call earlier on in the morning of the accident driving through there so I really thought about what happened and I said to myself, ‘life is worth more than what money is worth.’”
“I went back there the week after the accident and saw where it happened, and I knew I had done the right thing by just closing my business and walking away from it for my own peace of mind because it really hurt,” Mr Wright said.
Mr Bland was a Healesville local and had been at the branch for eight years, and Mr Oakley had freshly moved to the branch just three months before the accident.
Family, friends and colleagues spoke highly of both Mr Bland and Mr Oakley.
Colleague of Mr Bland at the Healesville Ambulance Depot, Bernie Harkins, told Star Mail that Mr Bland always gave 110 per cent of himself for every call.
“The Tuesday morning after the accident, a mother with six children visited the ambulance branch,” Mr Harkins said.
“The oldest child, aged nine, was carrying a large preserving jar filled with coins. This was the combined savings of the six children,” Mr Harkins said.
“The mother said they had come to donate the money to the branch in honour of Rob because of the extra care he had extended to the family when attending a car accident that they had been involved in.”
According to Mr Harkins, the mother and youngest child had been injured, so Mr Bland immediately organised for someone to care for the remaining five children.
Mr Harkins said, “When the family car was being repaired, Rob lent them a car of his own and visited the family several times to offer further assistance.”
Former Chief Executive Officer of the then Metropolitan Ambulance Service, Greg Sassella, told Star Mail it has been hard for the ambulance community to deal with the deaths of Robert Bland and Phillip Oakley.
“The sudden, tragic deaths of these two paramedics who devoted their lives to caring for others is extremely difficult for the families and their paramedic colleagues to come to terms with,” Mr Sassella said.
“Our line of work, our very purpose, is to help others in need and deal with tragedy on a daily basis,” he told Star Mail.
“It is extremely difficult when it is two of our own.”
The funeral of Robert Bland and Phillip Oakley was attended by around 1500 emergency service personnel, family, friends and people the ambos had helped along the way.
