Giving back: Rally Motors principal Daniel Hose will host a charity open day at his Mercer Street business to assist the agencies that came to his aid after he suffered severe burns in a 4WD rally accident.
Greg Wane
GEELONG motor technician and business owner Daniel Hose is hosting a fund raising event next month, to support burns victims after becoming one himself in a freak accident during a four-wheel drive rally.
Daniel, who owns and runs Rally Motors, was competing in the Iron Man Cliff Hanger event at Cobar in mid-west New South Wales when a radiator hose connection failed and sprayed boiling water over Daniel who was navigating for driver Mick Magher.
“The modified single cab Nissan Patrol we were competing in has a rear mounted radiator and the pipes to the radiator run through the cab.
“When the fitting failed all the hot water sprayed over the cabin,” Daniel explained.
“We were about 80 kilometres out from Cobar on a 400,000 acre property.
Daniel was competing in a night stage during a five-day competition on July 8. It was a multiple car event.
“It happened at about 10.30pm and when St John’s got to me the first thing the guy asked me was how bad the pain was.
“And I remember grabbing the man by his collar and telling him to forget the pain – I think I am hypothermic.
“People had been tipping cold water on me, all over the burns, and my body temperature was border line hypothermia.
“It was about four degrees that night in the open and I had been laying there with next to no clothes on.
“My top was freezing cold and my bottom half felt like it was on fire,” Daniel said.
Initially the St John’s crew attended Daniel at the scene and after assessing his burns contacted an ambulance from Cobar.
St Johns conveyed Daniel about 40 kilometres up the road.
Here emergency crews transferred Daniel to the ambulance and he was taken to Cobar Hospital.
“We got to Cobar about midnight. They assessed me and called for a plane to take me to Sydney’s Concord Hospital burns unit.
Daniel said he was admitted to Concord hospital burns unit at 6am.
His burns were defined as 28 per cent of his body.
Both legs and left arm were affected and he suffered full thickness burns on the back of his legs and top of his arms.
“My right leg was actually the worst because the hose had come off and flicked around and got caught behind me on the back of the seat and squirted my left leg.
Daniel said teams do not wear flame-proof suits because the event is a winch challenge and you spend a lot of time out of the car and pulling winch cables off the top of hills.
Maybe we should in future but the suit would be really restrictive for drivers and navigators.”
Daniel was in hospital for three and a half weeks.
“I have had skin grafts almost up my entire left leg and a graft on my left ankle.
“I have got pressure garments that I have to wear for the next six months. They are basically a stocking and they keep it clean and apply pressure to the area that is designed to minimise scarring.”
Daniel said this was the first accident he’s had in 15 years of competing, but intends to return to the sport next May.
“I need to do some more work on the car and also I wanted to make sure I was 100 per cent fit again and healed.
“Vehicles need a lot of maintenance after the events.
“They usually end up with driveline damage and it takes its toll on diffs and axles.
“Panel work is the next most common damage where rocks and trees get in the way and occasionally other cars, but that’s rare,” Daniel said.
The Nissan Patrol 4WD has been highly modified and only the cab and chassis remain of the original vehicle.
The engine has been replaced with a Holden 6 litre V8, the body has been strengthened with custom bar work throughout and underneath shockers and suspension has been beefed up for the 37-inch wheels.
Despite the accident Daniel and Mick notched up a third place overall for the series of events, which ran over a week in outback New South Wales, and they took home $3000 in prize money.
