Labor MP Ed Husic speaks about the shocking injuries and memory loss he suffered as he returns to parliament after horrific truck smash
Labor MP Ed Husic has described himself as ‘very lucky’ to have survived after a truck slammed into his vehicle last month.
The Member for Chifley revealed the full extent of the road crash that left him with a concussion and a fractured back, as dashcam was played during an interview on News24.
The video showed Husic’s vehicle stationary at an off-ramp before a truck lost control and fishtailed into the back of his car.
‘That was when I was just waiting to go off the off-ramp,’ Husic said.
The Labor MP said he had no warning the collision was about to occur and remained unable to remember much of the day because of the concussion he suffered.
‘My mind is a blank from midday through to when I regained consciousness in the emergency department,’ he said.
Husic said he had to meet with people he’d spoken to on the day of the accident again because he could not recall the conversations.
‘I saw some people that I’d seen on the day and said, ”Listen, I know my diary says that I met you that day, I’m going to have to have another meeting because I can’t remember anything of what we discussed.”’
Ed Husic (pictured) said he was ‘very
The damage to Husic’s car suffered in the crash on the M7 motorway
The MP said he initially feared he may have injured someone else before learning the extent of what had happened.
‘I couldn’t get over when I woke up that I’d been in an accident,’ he said.
‘I was genuinely concerned I might have hurt someone else and I’m just very thankful.’
Husic praised medical staff at Westmead Hospital and his physiotherapist at Mount Druitt for helping with his recovery.
‘The biggest thing is I feel very lucky,’ he said.
‘The after-effects of the concussion have washed out and I’ve just got a hairline fracture in the back that I’m dealing with. That’ll take another eight weeks to sort itself out.’
He said the seriousness of the crash only became apparent to him when he later inspected the damaged vehicle.
‘The full extent of it wasn’t clear to me until I turned up to the smash repairs the next day in Mount Druitt and saw the car,’ Husic said.
Husic said he didn’t realise how serious it was until he inspected the car
‘I was just so thankful I didn’t have anyone in the back seat.’
Husic thrust himself into the national spotlight earlier this year by lobbying Labor to adopt a tougher stance on Israel, a campaign that has continued to fuel internal tensions within the party.
His push to strengthen Labor’s position on the Israel-Gaza conflict, including backing a reference to ‘acts of genocide’ in the party’s national platform, sparked one of the fiercest debates at Labor’s national conference in Adelaide.
