Australian father 'followed his intuition' to find son, 17, trapped in crashed car

Emergency workers cut Samuel Lethbridge out of a crashed car
AP
Roger Maynard16 January 2018

A teenage boy trapped in the wreckage of a car crash in the Australian bush was saved by his father who hired a helicopter to look for him.

Samuel Lethbridge, 17, was recovering in hospital today with multiple injuries. His father Tony located him after he had been missing for more than 30 hours.

The teenager’s smashed car was seen 60ft off the Pacific Highway near Crangan Bay, New South Wales, within 10 minutes of the helicopter taking off.

Mr Lethbridge guessed his son had been in a road accident after he failed to return home on Sunday night.

Samuel Lethbridge was trapped in a crashed car for 30 hours

There had been a crash on the same stretch of road years before and Mr Lethbridge thought Samuel might have been involved in a similar accident.

Speaking to Australia’s Seven News, he said: “Everybody was saying he’s probably run away and all that kind of stuff. But that’s just not Samuel.

Tony Lethbridge and daughter Meghan pictured on Seven News

“We did have an accident here about five years ago and unfortunately that bloke passed away because nobody found him within five days… I wasn’t going to let that happen.”

Determined to find his son, Mr Lethbridge hired a helicopter and asked his brother Michael to join the pilot. They had only been airborne for 10 minutes when they saw Samuel’s Hyundai in a bank by the roadside.

“We were so lucky because for those first 10 minutes it was really thick, wooded land and then Sam’s car is so white so it just stood out,” Michael told local media.

Samuel's father 'followed his intuition' to find his trapped son
AP

The bush was so dense that the pilot was unable to land, so he dropped Samuel’s uncle about 150 yards away.

Michael feared the worst as he approached the wreckage. He said: “I really didn’t want to go, I was scared of what I might find.”

However, when he looked inside the car he saw Samuel’s head moving. “I went from being terrified to ecstatic in a couple of seconds,” he added.

Michael found Sam pinned under the dashboard with multiple fractures, but he was fully conscious.

Rescue teams had to peel back the roof and cut out seats to free him. Ambulance superintendent Jess Atkins said Samuel was trapped from the waist down and added: “It was a very extensive rescue [and it is] lucky the young man is still alive.”

Samuel’s sister Megan, who first reported her brother missing, wrote on Facebook: “Counting my lucky stars tonight that [Samuel] is doing well.”

This morning he received surgery at John Hunter Hospital, in Newcastle, New South Wales, where he is in a serious condition.

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