Bradley Frost
The opening night of the Rugby World Cup was a bad experience for a lot of people, but it almost cost Bradley Frost his life.
“The fireman actually said usually with these car crashes where the car was, i should have been under there, but luckily I got pushed back. I could of lost my life in that accident,” he said.
He could also have lost his leg. His right leg was so smashed up there was a gaping hole in it - his tibia and fibula were both broken. A big price for a 12-year-old rugby fan to pay.
Like hundreds of thousands of others Bradley and his family went to the waterfront to be part of the action. They too were delayed by the trains, and then crushed by the crowds on Quay Street.
“It was half cool, well not very cool cos it was freaky as well. You were really squished together, and there were heaps of people there,” Bradley said.
So the Frost family made a decision to get out of the chaos and watch the game elsewhere.
The crash happened in a matter of seconds. The car involved was actually waiting to turn into a petrol station when a bus came from behind, shunting it in the rear, which caused it to become airborne. It then smashed into the Frosts.
Bradley was under the car, but a passer by pulled him out.
“I was pretty freaked out because I knew my leg was a lot worse than I had broken before, so I was getting a little worried but the doctors and nurses gave me lots of pain relief and stayed with me. Then I had my surgery that night,’ Bradley said.
During that surgery a metal bar was screwed into his bones to hold his leg together. He's since had surgery twice more, and when Campbell Live spoke to him he was about to go under again for a skin graft.
“When I got hit, it ripped my skin open so I am actually having skin taken off. They think on the thigh, but it might be somewhere else. They are going to put it over my open wound, and I had a scan to check my blood vessels because they have to sew my blood vessels together,” Bradley said.
“I will be able to get through this, and be A-OK.”
Bradley did get through the 6 hour long surgery A-OK, but he faces months of rehabilitation, which means this young fan won’t be able to play rugby any time soon - but he'll always remember what he was doing during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
“I will be able to tell everyone when I was older that I was in hospital watching the Rugby World Cup.”
Campbell Live