Journalist Ben Hyde reflects on horrific 170km/h rear-end collision that almost claimed his life

In October 2021, journalist Ben Hyde left his Adelaide office and drove down a quiet street. What happened next would change his life forever.

In October 2021, journalist Ben Hyde left his Adelaide office late at night, ready to head home to his family after a long day. But just minutes later, he found himself in a nightmare that would alter his life forever.

“It was Labour Day,” Hyde wrote in an article published in The Advertiser, recalling that he pocketed a small Lego figure made by his son Ollie to keep him “safe,”

But he could never have anticipated the ordeal awaiting him.

Unknown to Hyde, a driver high on prescription drugs and speeding at 170km/h was headed straight for him on Adelaide’s West Terra

In an attempt to evade police, Luigi Gligora, who had earlier refused to pull over, crashed his ute into Hyde’s car at an impact that set the young father’s vehicle ablaze.

“The engine of your car was at 99 per cent of full throttle,” District Court Judge Nick Alexandrides later said to Mr Gligora, sentencing him to four years in jail. “There could be more serious examples, but it is difficult to imagine.”

Ben Hyde says he’s lucky to be alive.

Scene of the crash involving Advertiser journalist Ben Hyde on West Tce, Adelaide on October 4, 2021.

Luigi Gligora was the man behind the wheel.

Hyde was left trapped in the twisted wreck, unconscious as flames began to lick his clothes and the air filled with smoke. Incredibly, a group of good Samaritans and police officers were on the scene within seconds, racing toward the burning car.

“I was at the mercy of flames that were starting to burn my clothes and melt my skin,” Hyde said. “But a literal army of people swarmed towards the danger to pull my lifeless body from the wreck.”

One off-duty officer smashed the window and used his hands to extinguish flames on Hyde’s chest, while an army corporal cleared his airway and performed CPR.

Ben recovering in the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Despite Hyde’s harrowing injuries — including brain trauma, burns, and multiple fractures — he says his family suffered their own trauma. His wife, Tania, rushed to the hospital, not knowing if he was alive.

Today, Hyde lives with a traumatic brain injury that leaves him cognitively fatigued and unable to multitask as he once could.

“Things that used to be done on autopilot now take far more time and effort,” he reflected.

“I may have been left with lifelong changes and complexities, but it’s a helluva lot better than the alternative: not being here at all.”

Among the wreckage, one thing survived: two Lego bricks from Ollie’s creation.

“It’s hard to fathom,” Hyde mused, “but there we both were, a little bit broken but far from beaten.”

The Lego creation made by Oliver Hyde for his dad Ben Hyde to keep him safe and to remind him of him while at work.