Benji Ward: Horrific development in Aussie tourist’s Bali moped crash ordeal as doctors give him news that will change his life forever

EXCLUSIVE

An Australian tourist involved in a horror motorcycle crash in Bali was forced to make the heartbreaking decision to have his leg amputated.

Benji Ward, 24, suffered serious head injuries and broke four bones – including the tibia and fibula of his right leg, which pierced the skin – in the head-on collision at 2 a.m. on August 31 in the North Kuta district of Badung Regency on Bali. .

A now-deleted update on a GoFundMe page, which raised more than $40,000 for Mr Ward’s medical costs and eventual repatriation to Melbourne, suggested the crash was a hit-and-run.

It was a claim further echoed by Mr Ward himself, who suggested police were hunting for a ‘Russian man’ in a video recorded in his hospital bed in the days after the accident.

But Daily Mail Australia later revealed that Mr Ward was actually to blame, according to Indonesian police.

Now Mr Ward has made the devastating call to have his right leg amputated below the knee.

At the end of September he was flown home to Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, where he underwent seven grueling operations before doctors presented two depressing options.

One involved an attempt to reconstruct his right leg with grafts from his good leg, risking dangerous infections and chronic pain.

The other was amputation.

“Ben has made the most difficult decision to have the lower part of his leg amputated to ensure he has a quality of life with a lower leg prosthesis,” a recent update on his GoFundMe page said.

‘This was not an easy decision for Ben to make, but he knows he will live a normal life and be able to walk again.’

Mr Ward underwent two major amputation procedures about ten days ago and is believed to have undergone another operation on Monday morning to help with the fitting of a prosthetic limb.

He shared a photo of his legs in a wheelchair – with the right leg heavily bandaged below the knee – alongside the caption: “I may have lost a leg but at least I have my mother back,” followed by three love heart emojis.

Mr. Ward has not publicly responded to this publication’s revelations that his accident was not a hit-and-run.

“They (the police) are trying to find the Russian who hit me because he also hit another person that same night and broke his arm,” Mr Ward said in a now-deleted video taken in the days after the crash.

Instead, Daily Mail Australia revealed that Mr Ward had signed a ‘peace deal’ through an intermediary to pay damages to the driver of the other motorbike – a Russian tourist named Dmitry Akimenko – to avoid being charged for a traffic violation.

Mr Ward, who was riding a Yamaha NMax with a 155cc engine in the early hours of the morning, was reportedly trying to overtake another rider when he entered a lane of oncoming traffic.

He then collided with Mr Akimenko’s Kawasaki Ninja, leaving the Russian driver with relatively minor injuries.

Daily Mail Australia has learned that Mr Ward agreed to pay Mr Akimenko $3,500 for the damage to his bicycle and just over $1,000 to cover the cost of his medical bills.

Photos from the crash scene illustrate the horrific impact of the collision.

One shows Mr Ward’s 155cc Yamaha NMax crumpled on the side of the road, while the other shows Mr Akimenko’s motorcycle on the footpath.

Indonesian police said there were no witnesses to the accident, but Mr Ward told them he was to blame.

“The hit and run crash never happened,” First Inspector Putu Deniani previously told this publication.

‘The Australian and the Russian had a road accident and both were in the same medical clinic that night. They told us they have agreed to resolve the matter peacefully without legal action.”

Ms Deniani added: ‘We are disappointed by Mr Ward’s suggestion that it was a hit and run.

“The fact is that it was not a hit and run accident. He himself hit the Russian.’

Mr Ward has not previously responded to requests for comment.