Ongoing care ... paraplegic George Boscolo is assisted by the Government's Lifetime Support Scheme.
Ongoing care ... paraplegic George Boscolo is assisted by the Government's Lifetime Support Scheme.
Photo: Kitty Hill
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Lisa Carty State Political Reporter
March 9, 2008
IT IS a dream for many middle-aged men - boarding a powerful motorcycle and heading off with mates to the world championships at Phillip Island.
George Boscolo was living the dream on the Far South Coast on October 11 last year when disaster struck.
"It was a nice winding road. That's what bike riding is all about, going around the corners," he said.
As he was turning off the Princes Highway near Bega, Mr Boscolo plunged down a 20-metre embankment, crashing over rocks and through trees, breaking his back and every rib.
The self-employed Newcastle man was flown to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney and diagnosed as a paraplegic. He went home last week, five months after he was hospitalised.
Mr Boscolo, 51, is confined to a wheelchair and he has had to sell his second-storey unit.
He is one of the 46 NSW residents in the NSW Government's Lifetime Care and Support Scheme, which helps people catastrophically injured in road accidents regardless of who was at fault.
The scheme, which began in October 2006 for children and was extended to cover adults a year later, is funded through greenslip premiums.
Motorbike accidents were the source of injuries for 15 of the 33 adults in the scheme, Assistant Finance Minister John Della Bosca said.
"Even more disturbing is the fact that 80per cent of those riders were injured in accidents where no other vehicle was involved," he said.
"Their injuries include severe brain injury, spinal cord injury - or a combination of both - and they now require intensive, long-term medical treatment and rehabilitation."
The scheme provides a safety net for the catastrophically injured who would be otherwise forced to rely on families for care, he said.
It covers medical treatment costs and guarantees day-to-day practical services including feeding and personal hygiene, domestic help, home and transport changes, child care, nursing and respite.
For Mr Boscolo, it means a new $6700 wheelchair - to be delivered this week - and modifications when he finds a new home, including a kitchen that will allow him to indulge his love of cooking.
Of the 24,906 people injured on NSW roads in 2006, 2326 were motorcyclists and pillion passengers, Roads and Traffic Authority figures state. There were only 122,700 bikes and scooters registered, compared to 4,234,126 cars and trucks.
Mr Della Bosca said the Government would spend $250,000 on road safety research and a campaign to reduce motorcycle accidents.