Road crash survivor Daniel Woolley couldn’t walk or speak for months - now he’s found his ‘second life’ as a road safety educator

A horrific car crash left this man fighting for life. Now he has a message for other drivers.

Daniel Woolley during his time in hospital, in the aftermath of his road crash. Picture: Supplied

When Daniel Woolley, 40, was airlifted to the intensive care unit of the Royal Adelaide Hospital after a horrific car crash six years ago, he was given only a 30 per cent chance of survival.

The father of five was driving through an intersection on Good Friday, when he was struck side-on by another forcing his vehicle to flip.

Paramedics took two hours to pull Mr Woolley out of the wreckage and he suffered a 20-minute seizure caused by severe brain bleeding, at the scene.

Doctors at the RAH diagnosed him with a traumatic brain injury and collapsed lungs.

He also had a ruptured diaphragm, leaving a long, purple scar down his belly.

Mr Woolley remembers nothing about the crash but suspects he was at fault for going through a give-way sign.

Daniel Woolley with his mum Mary. Picture: Emma Brasier

“The first thing I remember is waking up in the hospital bed and I couldn’t move my right arm,” he said.

His memory was completely shot.

“Anything over seven days of post-traumatic amnesia is considered a severe brain injury, Mr Woolley said.

“Mine was 10 weeks.”

Seeing her comatose son after the crash, Mary Woolley feared she would be asked to turn off the life support.

It was a faint movement of Mr Woolley’s eyelids weeks afterward that gave her hope.

“The doctors and nurses sometimes think you’re imagining it. But the nurse was sitting at the end of his bed and she saw it too,” Mrs Woolley said.

After another couple of weeks, Mr Woolley said his first word on Mother’s Day: Mum.

“When he started to talk, there were words there, but they didn’t make sense,” Mrs Woolley said.

A month after the crash, Mr Woolley was transferred to the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre.

The staff recommended Mrs Woolley investigate nursing home options for when her son eventually left Hampstead.

However, she was determined to take care of her boy, no matter what, and quit her job as a school teacher to take care of him full time.

Mr Woolley talks about his first and second lives - before and after the crash.

In his first life, he was a country larrikin who played football for Eudunda but eventually started dabbling in casual drug use.

His second life began on that Good Friday six years ago.

It involved relearning to walk and speak from scratch.

Mr Woolley now gives regular road safety talks as part of the Metropolitan Fire Service road safety program.

“I want to help people make the right choices on the road and in their lives,” he said.

“When I talk about someone having to wipe my bum, having to feed me, they go ‘Oh, shit’.”

One of Mr Woolley’s highlights is presenting to his footy team, the Adelaide Crows and getting to shake every player’s hand.

Now happily married and living independently, Mr Woolley has bought a caravan and is planning to drive his family around Australia.

He still struggles with memory and has about 20 alarms on his phone to help him remember day-to-day tasks.

Mr Woolley said he won’t stop trying to educate road users.

“If you make a difference to one person, their family don’t have to look at them dead in a hospital bed,” he said.

South Australia has so far recorded 72 road fatalities in 2023, compared to 71 in 2022.

Police on Friday afternoon launched Operation Stop Drink and Drug Driving, urging drivers to remain cautious and to take care on South Australian roads.

Superintendent Darren Fielke, officer in charge of the Traffic Services Branch, said 2023 had been the worst year of road fatalities since 2010.

“This is completely unacceptable, whichever way you look at it,” he said.

“From a policing perspective, these numbers are frustrating, disappointing and disconcerting.

“SAPOL and the community must work together to achieve a reduction in road trauma.”

The operation will run all weekend until the early hours of Monday morning and will include random stops and static sites across the state.