Holiday nightmare as couple's van catches on fire on outback road
An extraordinary survival tale has emerged in outback Western Australia, where a young couple’s dream road trip around Australia ended in flames on the Nullarbor Plain.
It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime for Adam Papadopoulos and Madellena Bertato, who sold everything they owned in London to travel Australia.
Instead, it was the trip that almost cost them their lives.
The travellers used all their savings to buy the van and deck it out. It was their home on wheels, which has now been destroyed, leaving the pair homeless.
Just six weeks into their holiday, the pair were driving along a remote stretch of the highway on December 14, when a heavy gust of wind caused Adam Papadopoulos to lose control.
He suffered a concussion and broken vertebrae in his neck when the van rolled several times. When he finally came to he saw the vehicle engulfed in flames.
“It completely caught fire. The whole van was on fire, like a fireball,” Mr Papadopoulos tole 7 News.
Ms Bertato suffered a fractured and bleeding arm, which left a bone exposed. She also had a fist-size hole in her left knee, with the tendons in her right ankle badly cut as her leg smashed through the front windscreen.
She was unconscious and bleeding, and became trapped in the fiery wreck.
“I tried opening her door but it was jammed,” Mr Papadopoulos said.
Ms Bertato told of how her partner climbed through the driver’s side window to pull her to safety.
Passing motorists found the pair badly injured on an often deserted road four hours’ drive east of Norsemen, and stopped to help.
The good Samaritans drove the couple halfway to Norsemen where they were met by an ambulance and taken the rest of the way into town, then flown to Royal Perth Hospital.
The Brits managed to salvage their passports and a mobile phone from the burning van and Ms Bertato had her prescription sunglasses, but her regular spectacles were destroyed in the wreck.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help the couple, who have a year working holiday visa, raise money to continue their trip Down Under.
“Maddalena my partner has now got to have a skin graft as well as tendons being repaired,” Mr Papadopoulos wrote on the fundraising page.
“They have told her she will be unable to work for 3 to 6 months. This absolutely devastated her as we relied on working on farms and random jobs to support our trip.”
Ms Bertato will spend Christmas in hospital while her partner spends the night in a hostel, however the couple say they are “so thankful to be alive”.
