2018 storms: police officer reveals moment tree shattered her leg
If you’re a bit squeamish look away now. A police officer with two broken legs describes the moment she was almost crushed to death by a fallen tree. And the X-ray to prove it.
A Probationary Constable has spoken publicly for the first time about the horrifying moment she broke both legs and was almost crushed to death after a giant gum tree fell on her during a violent storm.
Rookie cop Julieanne Garland was wearing her police-issue rain jacket for the first time and was looking forward to working with a Leading Senior Constable, who had a good reputation as a mentor, when a call came over the radio.
It was 6.50am on November 28 and the message was two cars were trapped in flood water on Pittwater Rd near Blenheim Rd at North Ryde.
Severe weather warnings had been issued the day before and Sydney woke to bucketing rain as the two officers arrived to find a number of cars had stalled after driving through flood waters and were blocking traffic.
The officers assessed the situation and immediately realised they needed to get the cars off the road and let the building traffic clear before the morning peak hit and plunged a major Sydney arterial into chaos.
“It was pouring down rain,” Constable Garland said.
“I just remember thinking this is it for the day, you know you’re going to be saturated. It was the first time I had worn my rain coat.”
The Central Coast mother-of-three joined the academy in January last year and was 12 weeks into her probationary period with Ryde Police Area Command.
“We went to push this car and we didn’t hear it,” she said.
“Literally seconds later the tree came down on the car and rolled onto me. It was a really weird feeling. I remember lying next to my partner ... he said ‘are you okay?’.
“I could not let go of my leg, I have never experienced so much pain. I remember (paramedics) cutting everything off me and saying `it’s all new (uniform)’ and I said `I’m new’.”
State Emergency Service volunteers had to cut a swath through the fallen tree to allow paramedics to free Constable Garland who was sedated and rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital.
X-rays would later reveal the tree had shattered her left femur and fractured her right ankle.
The 44-year-old also received a few lacerations to her head, which required staples.
Constable Garland joined the police after her children had grown up and the first thing she said when she came out of sedation was “does this mean I’m going to get sacked? I don’t want to go back to the academy”.
Before then she had been a personal trainer for 10 years and had spent the past two years caring for people with a disability.
She said her family were supportive of her joining the force but were worried “I would get assaulted or something” in the line of duty.
They never for a second imagined she would be flattened by an enormous gum tree as she tried to push a blue Mini Cooper off the road in a storm.
But what surprised her more was the support and kindness shown by her new extended police family.
“I’ve had so many visitors,” she said.
“Even Commanders from other commands have come and seen me. The response from the police was great. The support overall, the phone calls, the visits.”
Constable Garland said she was “lucky” to escape with just two broken legs, one of which has a metal rod inserted from her hip to her knee.
“It could have killed us or left us with spinal injuries,” she told the Express Advocate from a rehabilitation room of Brisbane Waters Private Hospital where she will spend the next several weeks recovering.
“I’m one of the lucky ones, there are a lot more people worse off than me.”
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