A FATAL crash that killed a young Mount Gambier man after his car left the road and collided with a tree near Moorak Monday night has left emergency services devastated by the tragedy.
The crash occurred on Carpenter Rocks Road at around 6.25pm and sole occupant 25-year-old Daniel Pearson died at the scene, despite desperate attempts by paramedics to save him.
Moorak Country Fire Service and Mount Gambier State Emergency Service crews both attended the scene along with police and ambulance services.
Mount Gambier SES volunteers were required on the scene for more than eight hours on Monday night and unit manager Simon Poel said he was proud of his crew for their efforts.
“First and foremost, my thoughts go out to the man’s friends and family at this difficult time,” Mr Poel said.
“I also want to take the opportunity to say I am extremely proud of everyone in our crew who worked at the crash scene, but also all our volunteers who attend incidents all year round,” Mr Poel said.
While SES volunteers understand they will sometimes be faced with devastating incidents, Mr Poel said fatalities can still have a significant emotional impact on volunteers.
“We are required at many different types of incidents, but fatalities are by far the worst,” he said.
“Our crews take it pretty hard, but they always make sure they do the job at hand and for they should be commended.”
The crew had a debrief with Mr Poel yesterday morning and he said they have people readily available for those who require counselling.
“You just don’t know who is going to know who and sometimes it is not until five hours after that you make a connection somewhere,” Mr Poel said.
“That is why we have people in the right positions to assist in those circumstances.”
Mount Gambier CFS operations captain Bob Davis said the Moorak crew was on the scene for fire protection.
“We were kept well clear of the scene as we were only there for fire protection,” Mr Davis said.
“From an emergency services perspective, there are a lot of people involved, from paramedics to the SES and CFS and it really does affect everyone.
“Our thoughts go out to the family.”
