Hero boy, 8, 'hotwires' radio to save dad

An eight-year-old Australian boy has been hailed a hero after he hot-wired a two-way radio to call for help as his dad lay trapped in the wreckage of a horror truck rollover. Michael Bowron stripped the radio wires and connected them to a spare battery he found among the wreckage. The Bonnie Rock youngster has told his fingers burned from sparks flying off the battery while he desperately called for help. ``I was scared, but I was trying to be brave,'' Michael said. ``My dad had heaps of blood on his face and heaps on his leg. I had heaps on my leg too, but not as much as my dad.''

Michael and his father, Justin, were driving home to the family farm in a prime mover truck on Saturday, October 10, when a tyre blew. ``It blew on the left-hand side of the truck and the right-hand side swung around,'' Mr Bowron said. ``The truck was heading straight into a bush and I tried to correct the steering wheel. When I did that, it tipped over. The last thing I remember was the driver's side hitting the ground.''

He regained consciousness minutes later to find himself wedged between the steering wheel and the dashboard. His leg was caught in the mangled truck, trapping him in the vehicle. Glass covered him and blood was pouring from his head. ``Diesel was leaking from the truck and the engine was still running,'' Mr Bowron said. ``I was worried it was going to burst into flames. I couldn't find my mobile phone and the two-way radio had been thrown out of the truck.''



Michael, who had been sitting in the sleeper cabin, crawled out of the wreck through the windscreen and tried to free his dad with a tyre lever. When that didn't work, he rummaged for the radio. It was pretty bunged up,'' Mr Bowron said. ``It couldn't work because it wasn't connected to the truck anymore. I told Michael he could get it going with the spare battery.'' The spare battery had been thrown out of the truck. I found the battery on the side of the road and dragged it over to my dad,'' Michael said. He told me to strip the wires from the radio and put them on the red and blue parts of the battery.'' Under his father's guidance, Michael was able to get the radio working and call for help.

One of the first to respond was Michael's mother, Christine. She immediately organised family members and neighbours to go to the crash. ``I was the first to arrive on the scene,'' Mrs Bowron said. ``I didn't think it was going to be as bad as it was. At the time I was just thinking, `How can I help?'. It wasn't until later that I thought about how I could have lost them both forever.'' Mr Bowron was trapped for just over an hour before he was able to escape from the truck.

It was another 45 minutes before the local ambulance service arrived at the scene. Local volunteer ambulance co-ordinator Peter Geraghty said Mr Bowron could have been trapped until night time if Michael had not been able to work the radio. Mr Geraghty said Michael had shown courage beyond his age. ``What he did was very impressive,'' he said. ``We say he's too old for his age. But a lot of country kids are like that. They know how to fend for themselves because often they is no one around to fend for them.''