'It happened so fast': The alarming story behind Bunnings' new sausage sizzle rule
While our snag-loving nation struggles to come to grips with Bunnings changing the way its iconic sausage sizzle is to be constructed, a farmer has revealed his paranoia of slipping hazards after being seriously injured by a wayward onion.
Bunnings confirmed it recently began providing safety recommendations to the community groups within their fundraising sausage sizzle welcome pack that onion be placed below the sausage to reduce the dangers caused by any dropped pieces.
The move has outraged many Aussies, with some calling the changes to the iconic weekend snack as ‘un-Australian’.
In the wake of the controversy, 65-year-old Queensland farmer Trevor revealed he had been a victim of a slippery onion on a Bunnings shop floor three years ago, which left him seriously injured.
The farmer from Mary Valley, north of Brisbane, said he was hurt when he went to the Gympie store in 2015 to buy a whipper snipper and fell flat on his back.
“It is serious stuff, this onion thing,” he told ABC radio yesterday, admitting he received compensation from Bunnings over the incident.
“I used to be an amateur boxer and I learnt the punch is not going to kill you, it’s hitting your head on the concrete that is going to. I went to another Bunnings a couple of weeks after and I had a panic attack.
“I walked into store and it happened so fast, I had leather boots on … I went down on my back.
“Every time I go into Bunnings now I look on the floor – I look for onions.”
A Victorian woman also claimed to be a victim of stray Bunnings sausage sizzle onions, and is suing the company.
“It has had such an impact on my life. Only those close to me will ever understand,” Dianne Cook shared on the Sunrise Facebook page.
“One trip to Bunnings nearly cost me my career … nearly my life.”
When announcing the change to sausage sizzles, Bunnings said in a statement safety was its number one priority.
