The 18-year-old survivor of a fatal car crash says he can’t remember the night his friend and South Fremantle Football Club teammate Nick Campo died.
Tyler Rowe was a passenger in the ute that crashed, rolled and collided with an SUV on Farrington Road last month, telling Nine News Perth he wishes he could deliver Campo a final message.
“I would’ve definitely told [Nick] not to hop in that car, because I’d still have one of my mates here,” Rowe said.
Campo died at the scene, while the 17-year-old male driver, Rowe and two other male teenage passengers of the ute were rushed to hospital with various injuries.
Rowe suffered multiple injuries to his face and skull, as well as a broken neck, pelvis and jaw from the crash. He was in a coma for 11 days.
After five weeks, he was recently discharged from Royal Perth Hospital and moved to Fiona Stanley where he is continuing his rehabilitation with daily physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions.
The apprentice mechanic wears a neck brace and has lost 10 kilograms since the crash, after doctors gave him a 50-50 chance of life in a permanent vegetative, or post-coma unresponsiveness, state.
“A big mental blank when they ask about that night, I can’t remember hopping in the car,” he said.
“I just woke up in hospital one morning and I was a bit like, ‘what am I doing here?’, I didn’t know what had happened. My parents had to tell me that I was in a car crash, I was a bit like, ‘nah, that’s impossible.’
“It could’ve been a lot worse. It could’ve been like my mate, who was really sadly taken away in the crash.”
The pair were teammates at South Fremantle Football Club and dreamt of playing AFL.
Campo’s parents urged people to “call out” young drivers for reckless behaviour five days after their son’s death and one week after his 18th birthday, and started a campaign, ‘Call Out For Nick’.
Rowe echoed their calls for road safety, as he thanked first responders who saved him that night.
“If you know the driver has been doing something he shouldn’t have, just have the guts really to call it out, say something.”
The teenage driver of the ute Campo and Rowe were in was charged with dangerous driving occasioning death, three counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and two counts of dangerous driving occasioning bodily harm.
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