Kimura Dixon tribute: Partner’s agonising drive after West End tragedy
A mother has described her agonising drive from the Gold Coast after learning her partner was killed and son remained trapped under concrete at a West End worksite.
A woman whose partner and son were trapped under a collapsed wall has described the excruciating car ride to find out if they survived the horrific workplace incident.
Kimura (Kim) Dixon, 45, was killed and his stepson Lucas (Rama) Pert, 19, was trapped under concrete for more than an hour as six workers and police worked to lift concrete off his body at the worksite in West End.
Mr Dixon’s partner and Rama’s mother Katarina Bell was working on the Gold Coast when she got a call there had been an accident and her son was still trapped.
It was a striking contrast from the morning where she had last waved at them – excited on the way to their first day of work together.
She said it felt like the longest hour coming back to find him in hospital.
“We rushed straight back down. And just came straight to the hospital,” Ms Bell said.
“We made it here and my son had not long gotten here. When we got the call, he was still pinned under the metal or whatever it was. And it took like a good hour for them, or however long it was to get him out.
“It just felt like everyone on the highway just decided to go slow,” she said.
Ms Bell said it had been a hard time for the family – losing her partner and almost losing her son who is still in hospital with factures on his face and skull and the possibility of needing a surgery on his eye socket.
“I’m torn between gratefulness and unbelievable sorrow, I almost did lose both of them.”
“Rama is better than he was when he first came in. I’ve cleaned him up. He’s awake like, he’s got a bit of a headache. But other than that, he’s not really in that much pain.
“Knowing that I can be there and I was able to stay at the hospital with him last night, and just physically seeing that he’s a bit battered and bruised, but he is okay.”
She said the last time she saw both Kim and Rama they were getting ready for their first day of work.
“We were all getting ready for work, and they left before I did. So we just have our coffees in the morning,” she said.
“We’ve had our coffees, got all our stuff ready, and then I say goodbye to the boys, and then I would just watch them drive down the driveway,
She said she wanted everyone to know much love her partner had for his friends and family.
“He had the biggest heart,” she said.
He was just an amazing person. He was the funniest guy. You just could not have a serious moment with him. He just turned it, turned it into this big silly funny joke. It was just hilarious.
“He was so sarcastic an he literally lit the room up everywhere he went. Whenever we went to go see friends, it was just laughs all night.”
She said she loved how he treated her kids like her own.
“He’d do anything for his kids, and even for my kids and me. That was his main priority. Is to make sure that me and the kids were okay,” she said.
