Prativa Shrestha
April 4, 2019
Roshan Bhetwal had arrived at Sydney for higher education less than six months ago. Now he is planning to postpone his study because of the trauma. He has decided to be under his parents’ care in Nepal for few months.
Bhetwal talking with Nepalese Voice, shared his harrowing experience of the Thursday morning, “I received a phone call from my friend on Wednesday night. We had day off for two days from Thursday, no work, no classes. My friend asked me if I would like to visit Melbourne with them, without hesitation I said yes. We had already started our journey. But Balaram, who was driving, forgot his phone charger, so we called our fourth friend, Aryan. He came with the charger, we asked him to join us. At first, he denied but after we insisted, he agreed to join. Hence, the journey began at 1am on Thursday morning”.
After 5 hours of drive, they took power nap for an hour and then they continued. Suddenly, all Bhetwal could see was a truck. Their car crashed while trying to overtake the truck from right lane. “I am not sure, but I feel our car was over speeding”, says Bhetwal. Further he states, “I came out of the vehicle but rest of them were stuck inside. I became unconscious after I saw my hand was bleeding. I have a history of being unconscious after seeing huge amount of blood. But I could faintly hear my friends shouting in pain. When I opened my eyes, I was in hospital”.
Additionally, he says, “My friends told me that emergency service came after 45 minutes of incident. They had to tear the car off to rescue my friends stuck in back seat. However, I feel Aryan could have been saved if he had received medical assistance sooner”.
Bhetwal has been discharged from hospital, but he has no one to look after him. He won’t be able to attend classes, and return to work. Therefore, along with another friend, he is returning to Nepal for few months to rest and be with family.
He says, “I wished to visit Melbourne but ended up in Albury Hospital. We should have been careful while driving in a completely strange and long route with a fully packed vehicle. On top of that we were over speeding. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. I plead all Nepali international students not to travel or drive for long routes if you are not confident. Plan the journey well and not just in a whim”.
Bhetwal is one of the victims of Albury road crash that occurred on 28th March 2019. He has been discharged from the hospital but other two injured are still in hospital receiving treatment for non-life-threatening injuries. The front seat passenger and the driver lost his life in the accident that occurred around 7 in the morning in Hume Highway, at Mullengandra.
