Ballarat driver Renee Warton relives the horror of the massive 14-car crash in dense fog on Western Freeway

A woman who survived one of Australia’s worst multi-vehicle crashes said she never saw the truck that zoomed out of the fog and crushed her nose, leaving her with injuries she is still struggling with six months later.

Ballarat resident Renee Warton, 31, was driving on the Western Freeway on December 11 on her way to Melbourne for a night shift when, despite being warned by colleagues about the fog, she almost ran into a series of collisions that happened around 4pm.

‘Even when I was still driving at low speed, I could only just accelerate, so the fog was that thick. It was actually insane,” Ms Warton told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.

“It was just the fog that caused this and I think someone had slowed down and other people weren’t as clear due to the lack of visibility. It was just a bang… it was a domino effect.”

Police said a total of 30 vehicles were involved in the pile-ups near Myrniong in Melbourne’s western suburbs, with one crash involving 14 cars.

“We were going at one to two kilometers per hour, we were just crawling – we had emergency lights and cars were coming very quickly,” she said.

‘It didn’t matter that the road was clearly dangerous and foggy, trucks kept speeding through, coming in hot and fast.

‘We all decided we were going to honk our horns to warn everyone.

‘Cars were just able to stop next to us. One car almost drove through everyone, but he just managed to stop.

“When I looked at him, I looked in my rearview mirror and I was hit by a truck.

“I saw my reflection in the mirror when I was hit, I was drowning in blood, it was terrifying.”

The crash caused her head to hit the steering wheel.

“I immediately hit my whole face and my gums,” she said.

Her first thought when she saw her reflection was, ‘Oh, my God, where are my teeth?’.

“I thought, thank God they’re still in my head.”

“But I saw my nose and I said, ‘Oh, my God.'”

Ms Warton said she had not seen the truck before the crash but believed it was the type used to move houses.

Ms Warton said her first instinct was to get out of the wrecked car, but then a man on the motorway shouted at her: ‘Don’t get out of the car, there are more cars coming.’

“There was a man who wasn’t actually involved in any of the accidents, he had just stopped to help someone,” she said.

“My eyes were on him and I said, ‘Tell me when to go and I’ll run.’

“He told me when to get out of the car, met me on the road and I jumped into the middle lane.

“He sat me down and there was an off-duty paramedic there. Shortly afterwards I fainted.’

‘I’ve fainted before, so I pretty much knew what was going on when my ears started ringing and the paramedic said, ‘Keep your feet up.’

“I said, ‘It’s going to be OK,’ I was just in shock,” Ms Warton said.

“I was probably one of the worst injured because my face was covered in blood. Everyone just went to ‘holy hell’.

;I said, ‘I’m fine. I walk and talk, I’m good. My nose is obviously very broken.”

“I sent the paramedic out to help others.”

The chaos continued around her.

‘Accidents still happened, even on both sides of the road.

‘It was just chaotic. I’ve never seen anything like it.

‘The emergency services did what they could, but it was like ‘where the hell do we start?’

“There was a man in a car who ran into the back of a truck, he ended up completely breaking his jaw, breaking all his teeth and ultimately having a brain injury,” she said.

“He’s on his way, thank God. There were many people with back injuries.’

When the Good Samaritan said he was leaving, Mrs Warton asked if she could ‘hitch a ride’ with him, knowing ambulances were struggling to get through.

She was taken to St John of God Hospital in Ballarat where she was treated for a broken nose, neck pain and back pain.

“About a week after the accident I felt the full effects of it, and I couldn’t move,” Ms Warton said.

She said the pain “comes in waves” after six months and is made worse by having to constantly look up in her work as a crane operator and rigger.

“I also have to wear a hard hat every day and just the little weight on my neck causes a lot of problems,” she said.

The accident shattered the septum of her nose and left her unable to breathe through her nostrils except for about five to ten percent capacity on one side.

‘Sleep is a huge thing. I can’t breathe through my nose so I basically have sleep apnea now,” Ms Warton said.

She wakes up several times a night because she ‘forgets’ to leave her mouth open and then can’t breathe.

Her injuries have also limited her in other ways.

“I’m a very active person, but I can’t really do things within my usual capabilities,” she said.

The physical injuries are a constant reminder of her accident, but perhaps even more traumatic are the psychological scars.

“It’s definitely changed the way I ride,” she said.

‘I’m getting really bad PTSD… I’m very nervous around trucks.

‘I travel to Melbourne from Ballarat every day to work and you find yourself really nervous on the road, if someone drives too fast into an intersection you just fuck yourself and it gets really frustrating.

“I’m looking for guidance, which is very difficult to get.”

To ensure she receives full coverage for her medical bills, which may include a full nose reconstruction, Ms Warton has engaged Melbourne law firm Slater and Gordon.

She wanted drivers to be more aware when road conditions were dangerous.

‘I want to be able to sleep. I want to be able to breathe properly. “I want to be active again,” she said.

“It’s very frustrating to do the right thing along the way and have someone else take those things away from you.

‘You have to drive according to the conditions, when you can’t see, don’t drive too fast and drive even slower than you think is necessary.

“I want people to realize that a car accident changes lives and that we all have the power to protect each other.”