Lifesaving favour returned

By SCOTT INGLIS

When Carl Burdett was run over outside his South Auckland home two years ago, a neighbour rushed to help him.

Two days ago, Mr Burdett reciprocated when a speeding car struck that neighbour as he stood on a ladder to trim a hedge outside his home in Wallace Rd, Mangere Bridge.

The 41-year-old man remains in a serious condition after surgery at Auckland Hospital.

He has not been named because some family members have yet to be told about the accident.

The man was working on his hedge when the 28-year-old driver of the stolen Ford Laser, carrying at least five people, lost control on a sharp corner and smashed into him at 11.45 am on Saturday.

A teenage woman in the car suffered serious chest injuries.

Mr Burdett, a retired 66-year-old, was one of the first on the scene and helped the first ambulance officer who arrived.

The accident brought back memories for him because the same neighbour tended to him when he was hit on the same corner on May 1, 1999.

His wife, Val Burdett, said yesterday that her hard-of-hearing husband was walking across the road on the bend outside their home when a car driven by 17-year-old woman hit him, breaking both his legs and nearly killing him.

He spent four months in Middlemore Hospital. It was feared he might not walk again.

"He can't play with his grandchildren or run around outside ... because [his legs] were so badly damaged."

Mrs Burdett heard Saturday's accident and she and her husband rushed to help their neighbour. "He was squeezing my hand but I don't know if he knew who it was," she said.

The Burdetts and other neighbours who live near the corner say there have been at least six accidents over the years and countless close calls.

They want it made safer, with speed humps or barriers put in.

Mrs Burdett said: "We just listen for the bang ... and you go out armed with a blanket. That's what the bend is like."

Another neighbour, Toni James, whose husband, Dave, tended to a motorcyclist who died in a crash on the corner about 12 years ago, agrees. "All the kids here are out on their skateboards - that'll be the next thing."

A man will appear in the Manukau District Court today on charges including unlawfully taking a vehicle, dangerous driving causing injury, and failing to render assistance.