Grandmother of six Virginia Mahoney has always been an avid walker, until the simple act of crossing the road bought her life to a halt.
“As I had the green light I progressed to walk across and next thing I know I’m laying on the ground and that’s about all I remember,” she told 9News.
She had been hit by a truck. The driver claimed simply not to have seen her, and his own life is now scarred by the morning of January 15, 2019.
From the roadway in Preston, Virginia was rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, her family dashing from across the state to be by her side.
Today is the first time her sister, Jill, has bought herself to speak about it.
She couldn’t believe it was real until she arrived at hospital, only to find her sister in ICU after suffering a near-fatal allergic reaction.
“It closed up my airways and I just died for three minutes,” said Virginia.
But once she was out of ICU, her sister knew she’d get to the other side.
“She’s as strong as an ox and nothing would beat her,” recalls Jill.
The reality Virginia would lose her leg was harder to come to terms with.
“The realisation was horrific just looking at all my injuries and the like and thinking ‘I don’t know if I can survive this’,” she said.
But survive she did, after months in hospital and rehab she moved in with her daughter, then back to her modified home.
For a time, she faced her days in a wheelchair, but thanks to ongoing rehabilitation she’s now back on her feet using a prosthetic leg.
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In the past year, pedestrian fatalities in Victoria have increased by 66 per cent, with 45 people losing their lives in 2022.
But the number of lives that have forever changed is far higher.
Police say it’s trauma that in many cases can be avoided, with more attention from drivers and pedestrians.
“It’s just a non-negotiable to make sure drivers aren’t using their mobile phones or being distracted while driving,” the Acting Assistant Commissioner of Road Policing Command, Justin Goldsmith, told 9News.
Virginia’s recovery has not just been physical. For months both she and her siblings struggled near traffic as the sound was too much to bear.
Jill recalled how she wanted to stop the traffic completely each time she helped her older sister cross the road, and when she faced it herself.
But three years on, Virginia now educates others about road trauma.
While life might have returned to a new normal, for Virginia it will never be as it once was.
“I am now a disabled person for life”, she says.
And the trauma she and her family faced from the moment she was hit will never leave.
“It’s not just one person affected. There is this ripple effect.”
