Author:
Date: Tuesday, 23 November 2010
On 24 February 2010, Damien Moss got the call from his hysterical wife that we all wish we never get. The family Patrol she was driving was t-boned from the passenger side by a brick cartage truck which was travelling at 100kmH.
Fortunately she had just dropped their 7 year old son at school but their younger son was in a bad way.
Damien fled to the scene beating the Police and Ambos to find his little boy lay across the back seat screaming and his wife trying to calm him down. Eventually the paramedics arrived and began working on his son whilst preparing them for the worst.
His wife ended up with a shattered knuckle on her ring finger but had massive bruising from the seat belt. His son was another story. Heath spent a month in PMH as he had both his legs in traction, arm in plaster and wrist in a plastic cast. When he got home he spent another month in bed but it was another couple of months before he could walk again.
My WAECO - well all I really remember about the scene of the crash was the stench of beer and having to explain to the Cops that my wife doesn't drink beer for breakfast. My brand new WAECO CF-60ACVERB was secured in the back of the Patrol and had a carton of stubbies in it. Needless to say there was beer everywhere. A couple of days later we retrieved our belongings from the car. I was devastated to see my WAECO in bad shape. Holes in it where my bag of tools went flying and a 20 inch screw driver went through the side of it, the motor housing hanging off, the protective cover completely ripped apart - I remember at the time being mostly shocked to see that the 200 kg rated straps I used to tie it down had snapped but the handles on the fridge that they were absolutely intact. A couple of months down the track I thought I'd plug it in - not at all expecting it to work. To my amazement the lights came on, and the motor kicked in, I couldn't believe it. I picked the shards of plastic out of it which used to be the base plate for the motor and compressor etc, gaffa taped the motor housing back together and taped over all the holes in the side. Used about 50 cable ties to stitch the insulated cover back together and installed it back into my new Patrol. I'm proud to say I'm taking it to Coral Bay for a week long camping trip this weekend and I have no doubt I'll be drinking cold beer every day. There wasn't much that could be salvaged from the crash but the WAECO outdone itself.
That said - it is a great example of the how tough people, Patrols and WAECO's are…. It is an awesome testament to your product that I can still use it after the punishment it has had. I don't expect it to last much longer particularly as it runs 24/7 in my Patrol.
I'll be recommending WAECO's to everyone I know for many years to come.
Damien Moss, Mandura WA
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