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Pride of Australia Award nomination

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7 years 5 months ago #175044 by Roderick Smith
Pain wouldn’t hold back heroic truckie Renzo Bruschi.
Herald Sun October 4, 2016.
TRUCKIE Renzo Bruschi has paid a heavy price for rescuing two drivers trapped in their vehicles after a horrific freeway crash, but he would do it all again in a heartbeat.
The Pride of Australia nominee, from Macleod, had stopped in heavy traffic on the Calder Freeway on May 24 when a fuel tanker lost control and smashed into him, possibly after another car cut in front.
That day, with fuel flowing all over the scene, Mr Bruschi, 52, heroically hauled the tanker driver out of his overturned cab and pulled a woman from her upside down car.
Renzo Bruschi hailed a hero
But in doing so he badly injured his back.
He now has four bulging discs, a damaged shoulder, is in almost constant pain, and has a life revolving around medical appointments, physiotherapy and sorting through WorkCover bureaucracy.
He hasn’t been able to return to work, having had to hire a driver to help rebuild his business.
But he counts himself lucky to be alive.
Renzo Bruschi. Picture: Josie Hayden
The TOLL tanker that rolled.
Sadly, he couldn’t save a man, 49, from his car crushed beneath the tanker.
Despite the setbacks, Mr Bruschi had no regrets.
“None, zero. I’d do it tomorrow, even with my bad back,” he said.
“No, I don’t regret it — I regret the accident happened, but I don’t regret what I did, no way.”
Mr Bruschi said a high point since the accident was getting a message from the woman he saved.
“She was very appreciative. She didn’t remember much apart from screaming for me to help,” he said.
He still can’t believe how much his life has changed.
“It’s unbelievable. But you do what you do, that’s the way it goes,” he said.
Mr Bruschi was on the phone to his partner, Cara Scott, as the crash happened.
“I just heard him screaming, and crashing,” she said. “Then he said, ‘I’ve got to go, it’s really bad’, but he didn’t hang up.
She heard a woman screaming and him yelling, “I’m coming, I’m coming”.
The tone in his voice told her he couldn’t help someone and he was distraught. She said what he did was “amazing”.
“He’s that type of guy. It’s no surprise he would do that,” she said. “ He’s a very generous and kind person, always helping other people, and he was a pretty happy-go-lucky sort of guy, but this has really taken its toll on him emotionally, physically and financially.”
Do you know a local legend? Nominate them for a Pride of Australia Award at heraldsun . com . au / pride of australia.
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