Kris Williams, 42, has spoken publicly for the first time since a bus ploughed into a shelter where he was waiting in West Burleigh, leaving him with catastrophic injuries. He woke from a coma believing he had died.
“I really thought I was dead and that I’d woken up in some weird alternative universe,” he said.
Crushed at a bus stop
Williams’ arm was nearly severed, and his shoulder, ribs, wrist and fingers were shattered. His head had to be stapled back together after being crushed.
“I remember the bus flying down the street,” he recalled. “I was just sitting in the bus stop. I just wanted to go home.”
Life-changing surgery
The 42-year-old’s arm has been rebuilt with skin and veins from his leg in a 12-hour surgery that saved both his life and limb.
“I don’t have feeling in three out of five fingers,” he said. “In the split second, everything was turned upside down and taken because of someone’s actions.”
Uncertain future
Williams faces more surgery, weeks in hospital and months of rehabilitation. “I don’t know what that looks like. I don’t know if I’ll be able to work. I don’t know if I’ll be able to ever use this arm again,” he said.
Police say the driver was trying to manoeuvre around a truck when the bus struck the shelter.
Family seeks answers
His family has launched a GoFundMe page, and the Gold Coast City Council is promising a safety audit on the city’s bus stops. Williams has yet to hear from Kinetic or the council and has been learning details of the crash from the news.
“We do want answers and, you know, it shouldn’t happen,” brother Ben Williams said.
