Jeff Kennett reveals freak driveway accident left him fearing death
Jeff Kennett has revealed he nearly died after being dragged under his own car in a freak driveway accident. Convinced he was “going to die” the ex-premier has now opened up about the dramatic ordeal.
VIC News
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Hawks president and former state premier Jeff Kennett has revealed how he nearly died when he was partly dragged under his own car as it rolled down his driveway.
“I thought I had met my Waterloo,” Mr Kennett said of the freak accident.
“I really thought I was going to die.”
There had been speculation around Melbourne about an apparent deterioration in Mr Kennett’s health this year.
He has been seen wearing a neck brace and using a walking cane, and his normally booming voice has become a mere whisper.
The two-time Liberal premier was dragged under his BMW X5 as it rolled down his driveway, before crashing through his front gates and onto the street outside his Surrey Hills home in late January.
Mr Kennett said he did not know how it could have happened.
“It was about 5pm and I was driving home,” he said last night.
“I was absolutely sober as a judge. I got out of the car, left the driver’s door open and went out toward the gate of my property to put some rubbish in the bin.
“As I turned back around, I saw my car rolling towards me,” he said.
“Stupidly, I thought that I could stop it.”
He said he tried to leap into the moving car, which was quickly gaining momentum. “Unfortunately I couldn’t get all the way in and the car door was still open,” Mr Kennett said.
“I was dragged along and hanging onto the driver’s seat.
“The car kept rolling, I was very conscious that I had to keep my legs away from the front wheels.”
Mr Kennett said he clung desperately to the driver’s seat to stop himself from being dragged further under his vehicle as the car crashed into the metal front gates.
“My car crashed through the gates. They weren’t picket gates, they were solid metal,” he said.
“I was squashed. The car rolled out onto the road and over the road, onto the other side of the nature strip and came to a halt. I did think my time had arrived,” he said.
Kennett first revealed what had happened to his mate Sam Newman when he appeared as a guest on the podcast series You Cannot Be Serious, with Newman, Mike Sheahan and Don Scott. It was broadcast yesterday.
“I found I had not broken anything, but I had severely bruised a lot of my body so it is great to be alive,” he said.
“I thought that I was all right until a few weeks later my legs started to collapse beneath me, which was a result of the accident.”
Mr Kennett said he was later admitted to hospital for a six-hour operation on his injured neck.
“It caused damage to my neck, which I didn’t realise at the time,” he said.
“I lost power on my right side and I couldn’t stand.
“I was very lucky. I really am lucky to be alive.”
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