Steve Webb, the nice guy with the sad job

Farewell to the man with the hardest job in the world, from all those who will miss him

DRIVER SAFETY: Wide Bay Forensic crash unit Sergeant Steve Webb at the scene of a recent tragic double fatality at Curra. Picture: Josh Preston

ROAD crash investigator Steve Webb has a way of keeping things in perspective, even in the most traumatic situations.

Hero cops who are also nice blokes are treasured rarities, especially in extreme situations where anyone can lose patience, or even lose their minds.

But not Wide Bay forensic crash investigator, Sergeant Steve Webb.

Jodie Callcott's story on P.9 today captures the human being who brought all that humanity to his role.

Reporters and photographers, traumatised by the awful violence of their own up-close experience of death on our roads, have been grateful for his down-to-earth grace and the comfort he was able to radiate so easily.

In 26 years with the Forensic Crash Unit he has attended more than 500 fatal road crashes and other often gruesome scenes.

Nothing in our lives as civilians comes close to matching the horror and awful finality of road trauma.

Sometimes it has been people he knew who were dead at the scene, sometimes it was a child, with a distraught family helplessly grieving.

He has been involved in them all.

Steve retires at the end of this month and is no doubt hoping for a quiet time on the roads between now and then.

So say we all.