Someone knows … that’s why Sue Rayner is appealing for help.
She wants to find whose horse wandered on to Epping Road in Epping in front of her husband’s car on March 19.
Her husband, David, was driving home to Wallan and had just passed the Donnybrook Road roundabout.
The horse died on impact and David was left with severe head injuries. He is now too scared to drive and becomes agitated just leaving the house.
His wife wants someone to say “sorry” for what has happened to her family since the crash – they have been forced to sell their home because David cannot work again yet.
Two of their three children still live at home and Ms Rayner’s own work as a ward clerk in a busy hospital emergency department has also been affected.
“The neurosurgeon said it will take five years for the scarring on his [David’s] brain to heal,” Ms Rayner said. “He’s not paralysed, but he has head trauma and post-traumatic stress syndrome.”
While the Transport Accident Commission pays 80 per cent of Mr Rayner’s former wage as a forklift driver until February next year, he is not receiving superannuation payments and the family’s financial situation started going backwards fast.
“If David had hit another car, he could have received something like $425,000 in compensation, but because he hit a horse he gets nothing,” Ms Rayner said.
She is appealing for help to find out the owner of the horse that caused this damage.
“It was well cared for, and shod; about 10 years old, a bay mare,” Ms Rayner said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Whittlesea police on 9716 2102.
