While I Was Sleeping: Extreme bravery from first responders and good Samaritans to rescue Ben Hyde from burning car

It takes extreme bravery to run towards perilous danger in a bid to save a total stranger. But such incredible feats were on full display after a fiery crash on a busy city street.

• Watch ‘While I Was Sleeping’ documentary
• Ben Hyde’s miracle rescue and recovery

Sean Davies may have expected to one day come across a life and death battle in a war zone.

He never expected to come across one on West Tce in Adelaide’s CBD.

The then-Australian Army corporal was on his way to a shift manning the Tom’s Court Covid medi-hotel in October 2021 when he saw a catastrophic car crash unfold in front of his eyes.

He and two junior Army colleagues witnessed drugged driver Luigi Gligora flee from an attempt by a police patrol to pull him over, speed down West Tce at 170km/h before a fiery collision with a car being driven by this author.

Former Army corporal Sean Davies helped rescue Advertiser journalist Ben Hyde from his burning car after a serious crash on West Tce, Adelaide, in October 2021.

Sean and Ben reunite at Adelaide Airport in July this year. Picture: Brett Hartwig

With my car on fire and petrol leaking, Davies and other good Samaritans, including on and off-duty police officers, swarmed to my car and ripped into it to gain access to me as I sat unresponsive and burning in the mangled wreck.

“When I saw your vehicle it was almost completely destroyed and I knew approaching the vehicle there would be someone in it, but I didn’t expect you to be alive,” Davies recalls in While I Was Sleeping, The Advertiser’s documentary about the crash.

“The smells that I remember … it is graphic … the smell of burning flesh, the fuel, even the fabric smell of that burning and the oils.

“You look at someone who is burning alive in a vehicle, and a child seat (in the back) and I realise there’s fuel leaking.

“I accepted the risk in that moment. I went, ‘I’m going to try, or I’m going to die doing it’.”

A good Samaritan forces his way into Ben's car to rescue him. Picture: SA Police

A police officer uses a fire extinguisher to douse the flames in the car while Ben was still trapped inside. Picture: SA Police

The mangled wreck of Ben’s car. Picture: SA Police

It wasn’t just Davies putting his life on the line. Graphic police body worn camera vision from the night shows an off-duty police officer using his hands to pat out flames on my chest before an officer on duty gets a fire extinguisher, unleashing it inside and underneath the car to suppress the flames.

They then went to work dragging my lifeless body from the wreck.

”We went through the extrication of yourself out of that vehicle before you completely succumb to the flames of that crash,” Davies said.

“At that point of getting you through that car window you had actually lapsed out of consciousness and stopped breathing, so time was really of the essence at that point.”

Sean Davies (left) among the good Samaritans who dragged Ben from his burning car and revived him on the night. Picture: SA Police

Their heroic deeds were far from over at this point, turning their attention from rescue to revival. Davies put his Army-trained first aid skills to work.

“With the help of others I was able to get you to the sidewalk (and) this is where the first aid that we did on you came into effect and we were able to bring you back to life essentially,” Davies said.

“We were able to bring you back to a state of breathing at that point. It was probably the most physically exerted I’d been in my life.

“I will never forget your eyes opening and you taking that breath of air … I think that was the first moment you felt that pain hit you.

“I saw in your eyes that life had come back, but so quickly life was draining from you.

“It was at that point in time where I realised I have really expended at lot of my training here. I don’t know how to keep you alive at this point. And that’s when the ambulance arrived.”

SA Ambulance Service paramedic Emily George was on the scene within four minutes of the triple-0 emergency call being made.

Paramedic Emily George was part of the ambulance crew that treated and transported Advertiser journalist Ben Hyde after the crash. Picture: Keryn Stevens

“It was one of those big scenes. There was chaos,” she said.

“It was full on. It was one of those jobs I keep in my book of memories of bad jobs that I hope I never attend again.”

But George said that despite the horrific nature of the scene, the cast of helpers she had was incredible.

“Thankfully we had some Army personnel and an off duty ambulance officer from interstate, so I didn’t really need to teach bystanders on what I required.

“I asked them to pull the spinal board out, they worked out how to get the bed. They added value to every part of getting you to the hospital rapidly.”

With the work that had already been done before she arrived, and with the help she had once at the crash scene, George was able to have me at the Royal Adelaide Hospital within about 17 minutes of the crash happening.

“I couldn’t keep you steady. I tried to keep your head still but you weren’t having a bar of that, so I went pain relief, needles, let’s go (to the RAH),” she said.

“Airway burns are so scary – that’s just one thing you don’t muck around with.”

Davies, who has since left the Army and now works in the mines in his home state of Queensland, returned to South Australia to revisit the scene of his heroics for the making of the documentary.

He said a lot of trauma from that night had stayed with him, but the positive outcome had helped him to find solace.

“It’s taken me nearly three years to build the courage (to return to West Tce),” he said.

“I’d always avoid it going through Adelaide … there’s always a piece of you there.

“But it’s closure.”

Even Davies said he had to pinch himself to comprehend the incredible collection of people who were on hand at that moment on West Tce that night.

A drawing by Ben's son Oliver for Sean.

Sean Davies at the site on West Tce where he helped save Ben Hyde’s life. Picture: Brett Hartwig

“Not just us (Army personnel), but an off duty police officer and all these brilliant first responders just happened to be in close proximity at that point in time,” he said.

Davies’ feats that night have led to him being nominated for a bravery award, but no official recognition has yet come.

But he says if he’s ever confronted by a similar scenario again, he would not hesitate to help.

“I always believe the standard you walk past is the standard you set,” he said.

“I can’t walk past something like that and pretend it didn’t happen in front of me.

“There’s a lot of stories out there where it doesn’t necessarily have that happy ending. (This) is a great Australian story.”

While I Was Sleeping is available to watch now at advertiser.com.au