The Port Fairy man’s life changed about six months ago when he and his wife Rita were returning from visiting their grandchildren in Melbourne. What had been a dream weekend turned into a nightmare when they were involved in a horrific car crash.

The couple had reached a passing lane a few kilometres west of Terang and moved into the right lane to overtake another car.

“All of a sudden we heard all this screeching and banging and this big truck just came up and rammed us on the back of the car, which made the car go to a full spin and it spun around about four times, five times and by the time it came to a standstill it was in the opposite lane sideways,” Mr Cassar said.

The terror didn’t end there. A four-wheel-drive coming around a blind corner had little chance of stopping in time.

“It ploughed straight into us.”

The couple had changed drivers just a few minutes before the crash and Mr Cassar, in the passenger seat, sustained most of the impact.

It took emergency services about 45 minutes to free him from the wreckage. His legs were trapped under the dash and the floor had come across and almost crushed him.

“I was going in and out of consciousness, I couldn’t breath, I had two broken ribs, a punctured lung, all this stuff (pointing to his leg) and when they were operating on me in the hospital I had a bleed on the brain as well.”

The major damage was to Mr Cassar’s left leg, a broken tibia, which has required an external cage-like fixture for many months to help the shattered bones fuse back together.

Four operations later and Mr Cassar is still limited in his mobility, but enjoying the progress he is making during rehabilitation sessions at St John of God Warrnambool.

“When I got transferred back to here (St John of God) it was great. Up there (in Melbourne) there were seven guys to a room and everyone was in pain. Coming here was like heaven and everyone has been really, really great,” Mr Cassar said.

“If it wasn’t for all these people I don’t know what I would have done because I was pretty lost with it a lot of the time.”

St John of God allied health services manager Adrian Benson said the early goal was just to get Mr Cassar home.

“It’s a tough journey, Tony’s been brave, he’s done everything he could have done,” he said.

“At the moment he’s still needing to use crutches to get anywhere and it’s still going to be some time before Tony has regained mobility close to what he had prior to the accident… Injuries like this are bound to leave some sort of permanent impairment.” 

While the horror of the crash is still fresh, Mr Cassar is trying to remain positive about the future.

“I’d just like to say thanks to everyone who’s been helping me,” he said.

‘It’s been a slow journey but I can see the light now… so we’ll see how we go.”