Footy star lucky in fiery crash
East Fremantle champion footballer Tony Buhagiar is thankful to be alive after his Toyota Prado was sideswiped and rolled four times in Melville.
Mr Buhagiar, who played 83 games for Essendon and has built a successful business career, said his car and another collided as he drove to a Fremantle gym about 5.50am on Wednesday.
He described the other driver as "playing Russian roulette".
Mr Buhagiar's vehicle landed on its side while the other car, a Hyundai Excel, came to a rest on a verge.
Eskimo Joe guitarist Joel Quartermain, who lives nearby, used his phone camera to photograph the fireball.
Mr Buhagiar said that had he been in a smaller vehicle he would have been killed.
"I didn't know it was a car accident until it stopped rolling," he said. "It felt like a bomb that hit me.
"The only thing that saved me was that I had a Prado and the police said that."
The other car in the crash exploded in flames. Picture: Joel Quartermain
Mr Buhagiar, 59, said there were no tyre marks from the Hyundai's direction, possibly indicating the driver did not brake at a give-way sign.
Mr Quartermain and other nearby residents said they heard a car "hooning" before the crash.
"For his little car to make my car roll four times just shows the force of the impact," Mr Buhagiar said. "I landed on the other side of the road. I was lucky it was early in the morning because if there was oncoming traffic, I would have been gone."
Mr Buhagiar said gym partner Manoj Pillai was almost in a car crash 10 minutes earlier with a vehicle similar to the Hyundai.
Mr Pillai said he came close to a head-on collision on Parry Street with an Excel "screaming" down the wrong side of the road about 5.40am.
"I was just past High Street and saw this green Excel with one headlight out coming straight at me," Mr Pillai said.
He said it missed him by less than a metre.
"It was horrific," he said.
Traffic enforcement group officers are investigating the Melville crash and the Hyundai driver was drug-tested.
Mr Buhagiar played 138 games at East Fremantle, including the 1974 and 1979 grand final wins.
He booted 171 goals in 108 games for Essendon and Footscray.
Mr Buhagiar is part-owner of central Perth bar Stables.
