Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie spoke with David and Janet Wilson, whose son's death in a car accident is the focus of an upcoming documentary

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Katie spoke with David and Janet Wilson, whose son's death in a car accident is the focus of an upcoming documentary · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, many of you will be familiar with rad They
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: do a lot of work when it comes to road safety,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and they have just completed production of a thirty minute
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: television documentary called what If The Brandon Wilson Story. Now,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the documentary is going to be broadcast this coming Sunday
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  Speaker 1: at seven pm on nine Darwin as well as MPAJA.
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  Speaker 1: It's then going to be broadcast across the nine network
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  Speaker 1: nationally on Saturday, the fourth of December. It's a story
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: about a twenty one year old trade from Darwin. What
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  Speaker 1: If is narrated by Karl Stefanovic, and it's going to
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  Speaker 1: focus on the life and the tragic death of Brandon Wilson.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Brandon was driving a work mate in a company ute
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  Speaker 1: late one afternoon when he lost control of the vehicle
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  Speaker 1: and crashed, rolling the ute several times. Now Chris, the passenger,
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  Speaker 1: had minor injuries and was able to get out of
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  Speaker 1: the vehicle and then look for Brandon, who had seemingly disappeared.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: He found him a short time life later in the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: long grass, about twenty five meters from the overturned ut.
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  Speaker 2: Brandon was dying and there was.
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  Speaker 1: No mobile coverage, so Chris had to try and wave
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  Speaker 1: down a passing motorist while at the same time administering
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  Speaker 1: CPR to Brandon. The difference in what was happening was simple.
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  Speaker 1: Chris was wearing a seat belt and Brandon wasn't. Now
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  Speaker 1: joining me in the studio this morning are Brandon's parents,
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  Speaker 1: David and Janet Wilson. I really appreciate you both being here.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, My good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Now I might ask you first, David, can you tell
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  Speaker 1: me a little bit about your son Brandon.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, he was a little bit of a rap
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  Speaker 3: back at times.
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  Speaker 4: So, yeah, he had a bit of a troubled life
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  Speaker 4: doing different things that he shouldn't have done in the
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: early parts, and he got onto substances that he shouldn't
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: have done. But he found his passion in plumbing and
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: that's what really set him on the straight and arrow,
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: as well as the birth of his first child. Yeah,
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: so Lily changed his life dramatically.
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  Speaker 2: And so he was a plumber, was he did.
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  Speaker 1: He do a bit of travel around the place around
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  Speaker 1: the territory with that job.
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  Speaker 3: In the territory, he did a lot of travel.
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  Speaker 4: He went to a number of different communities which he
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  Speaker 4: absolutely loved, and he thrived on it. He just totally
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  Speaker 4: enjoyed doing it, so you could see it. He bounced
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  Speaker 4: around and loved it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Janet, his little girl, Lily, how old is
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  Speaker 1: she now?
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  Speaker 5: She's five? Now, yep.
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  Speaker 2: I tell you what you know.
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  Speaker 1: I know that this documentary and even this process of
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: this morning coming in and you know, talking about your
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: son and talking about the documentary, it must be a
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: really hard one, but one that's obviously very important to
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  Speaker 1: you both.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's awfully important. I just want to try and
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: not make another family go through the same pain.
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  Speaker 4: It was inspired by our daughter Samantha, who, as Janet
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: was saying, that she didn't want Brandon's life to mean nothing,
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: which is the same as us. And so we contacted
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  Speaker 4: Raid Safety up here and just sort of trickled and
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: trickled and we're looking at just a thirty second ad actually,
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: but Peter from rad saw that there was too much
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  Speaker 4: in this just for that, and that's how this documentary developed.
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  Speaker 4: So after three years of constant filming and talking and.
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  Speaker 3: We're finally at the point where we can release it now.
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  Speaker 1: Now I know that all of his family, you guys
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  Speaker 1: and friends are involved in the documentary, and I think
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  Speaker 1: that That's such an important part of it, because when
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  Speaker 1: a life is lost, a life, you know, your son's
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  Speaker 1: life was lost on the road. People don't realize very often,
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  Speaker 1: but that impact is felt so broadly, isn't it.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: I think it was even to us the extent of
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: the impact. You think you know your children, and at
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  Speaker 4: the funeral there's probably excessive about five hundred people, and
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  Speaker 4: a lot of them we didn't know, but Brandon did.
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  Speaker 5: From all different walks of life and nationalities, and it
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  Speaker 5: just didn't matter for him. If you're a nice person,
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  Speaker 5: you're a mate, and he became a.
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  Speaker 3: Mate for life.
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  Speaker 1: And that must have made you feel pretty proud as
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  Speaker 1: well at his funeral, knowing how many lives he'd touched.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: Can you describe for me or can you tell me.
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  Speaker 1: Where you were at the moment that you found out
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  Speaker 1: that you'd lost your son.
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  Speaker 4: We were in Adelaide, actually down there for Janet to
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  Speaker 4: get some medical treatment down there, and we actually found Eddie.
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  Speaker 4: So he died on the fourteenth of August Tuesday, twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 4: and we've got a telephone call by one of his
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  Speaker 4: many girlfriends that he had and said to us, have
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  Speaker 4: we heard from Brandon and we said no, and she
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  Speaker 4: turned around and said he's dead, and that was a
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  Speaker 4: pretty shock moment for us. We just vitually turned down
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  Speaker 4: the first street. We're on our way to Royal Adelaide
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  Speaker 4: and turned down the first street on the left, and
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  Speaker 4: then I just started the process of I rang the
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  Speaker 4: police and because the police have yet to contact us
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  Speaker 4: three years later, so I rang them to just find
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  Speaker 4: out what the what the gay was And yeah, so
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  Speaker 4: we made our first first thing was to get back
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: so and let the other family know. We wanted to
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  Speaker 4: let certain people know what happened before well the Facebook
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  Speaker 4: stuff came out and whatever else.
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  Speaker 1: So what's it been like for you you both since
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  Speaker 1: that moment? I would imagine incredibly incredibly difficult. I can't
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  Speaker 1: even honestly, I can't even imagine just how tough. But
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  Speaker 1: also you know, with when you've got your little granddaughter
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  Speaker 1: as well.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, we don't see her anymore but in Queensland. But yeah,
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  Speaker 5: it's been very rough.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, for the whole family. A lot of it's you know, people,
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  Speaker 4: it's just not normal. Yeah, you're torn apart, you know,
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  Speaker 4: everyone in the families. Yeah, we're so just jointed.
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  Speaker 5: Now.
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  Speaker 4: I think it's you know, if it ever gets back
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  Speaker 4: the way it will, it'd be ideal. Yeah, Jane and
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  Speaker 4: I've had had problems as well, And you know, I
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  Speaker 4: think I read a stat it was about seventy percent
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  Speaker 4: of marriages separate after conditions like this, And I think
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  Speaker 4: for us to still be heret it's a big thing.
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  Speaker 4: We support ourselves and support each other. Yeah, it really
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  Speaker 4: is devastating.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that a huge part of this documentary
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  Speaker 1: is going to focus on the fact that he wasn't
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  Speaker 1: wearing a seatbelt and the.
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  Speaker 2: What if is, you know, is the title.
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  Speaker 1: Of the documentary, and really what it's going to look into.
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  Speaker 1: Is that something that you to ask yourselves quite often.
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  Speaker 4: I think for me it's a father always tries to
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  Speaker 4: protect his kids. You know, for me, there was a
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  Speaker 4: bit of guilt there for not protecting him more. But yeah,
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  Speaker 4: what if as Chris who was this passenger, walked away
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  Speaker 4: as minor injuries and then had to look for Brandon.
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  Speaker 4: And that's why I think people should have a look
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  Speaker 4: at us and next time they get in a car,
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  Speaker 4: have a look at that side window and just think,
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: you know, he wasn't a small kid, but he was
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: some big either, but he was trained twenty five meters
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  Speaker 4: outside that car, so he fitted through that window.
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  Speaker 3: When you look at it, you get wouldn't be able
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  Speaker 3: to but you can. Yeah, so he.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I really appreciate you both coming in and speaking
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  Speaker 1: to us. I would encourage anybody to make sure that
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  Speaker 1: they do watch the documentary on Sunday night when it
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  Speaker 1: is being it.
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  Speaker 2: I know that it's you know, it's it's in primetime.
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  Speaker 1: It is something that a lot of territorianes are going
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  Speaker 1: to be able to say. What do you hope that
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  Speaker 1: people take from watching this documentary on Sunday night and
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  Speaker 1: hearing your son's story.
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  Speaker 5: When they get in the car, that they think what
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  Speaker 5: they're doing, Yeah, and the first thing they do is
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  Speaker 5: put their seat belt on.
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  Speaker 4: It takes two seconds put a seat belt on, save
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  Speaker 4: your life, save misery of everybody.
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  Speaker 3: You know, what if just prove on.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I really appreciate you both coming in this morning.
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  Speaker 2: I know it's not an easy process.
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  Speaker 1: It must be so tough, and I think that what
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  Speaker 1: you've done is really really brave, not only this morning,
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  Speaker 1: but in terms of telling your story and going through
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: that process of creating the documentary with rad I think
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  Speaker 1: It's such an important thing to do, especially as a
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  Speaker 1: mum of kids that are little at the moment, but
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  Speaker 1: particularly the mum of a little boy who is you
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  Speaker 1: know who worries about these things as they're getting older
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  Speaker 1: and the safety of them being in cars, particularly once
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: they get to the point where they have their license.
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  Speaker 1: It's something that I think about already, so I think
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  Speaker 1: it's so important what you've both done, and I really
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  Speaker 1: appreciate it.
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  Speaker 3: No problems with all.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thanks so much for coming on the show
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  Speaker 2: this morning.