‘My leg was severed immediately': The crash that changed man's life

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT 

Ben Pope can still feel the moment an out-of-control teenage learner driver smashed into the bottom half of his body, severing his left leg at the knee and almost taking his right. 

The memory of what happened as the Gilmours delivery driver unloaded his parked truck last September usually strikes as he’s falling asleep. 

“I can still feel him hitting me … all the sensations and all the thoughts happen when I’m at my most restful. The whole thing feels like a nightmare, even now.” 

Pope spent two months in hospital, endured eight operations – most recently last month when he developed an infection connected to the rod and screws inside his right leg – and faces ongoing obstacles, including a court outcome that’s left him feeling justice hadn’t been served. 

But the 35-year-old is determined to return to the job he loves. 

Gilmours delivery driver Ben Pope was unloading his truck when he was struck by learner driver Oscar Pierce Ruffer last year. Photo / Google Streetview 

“I want to get back out on the trucks. I can’t be in an office with four walls and a ceiling, I need to be on the go. I need to be driving.” 

Just before dawn on September 17 last year, Pope pulled into a Central Boulevard loading zone outside Silverdale Mall. 

As he leaned into the back of the truck to fetch a Maru Sushi order a few minutes later, he heard a noise. 

It seemed far off and anyway, at 6.45am, the North Shore suburb 30km north of downtown Auckland is “like a ghost town”, he says. 

“So I carried on. I was doing this twisting motion loading the trolley and as I went to load – I think it was a box of oil – I caught him out of the corner of my eye.” 

Ben Pope says he had "no time to react" before learner driver Oscar Ruffer crashed into him. Photo / Dean Purcell 

He was Oscar Pierce Ruffer, an 18-year-old breaching his learner licence by driving his Toyota Premio alone, and whose blood would later show the presence of THC from cannabis and a prescription benzodiazepine, court documents show. 

The casual labourer from Silverdale drove on to the wrong side of the road and into Pope on a dry road with a 15km/h advisory speed limit, showing no signs of emergency braking, according to Judge Anna Fitzgibbon’s notes at sentencing in North Shore District Court on June 2. 

Ruffer said he took clonazepam and smoked cannabis the night before because he “just wanted to forget” about a relationship break-up, Judge Fitzgibbon wrote in her sentencing notes. 

He couldn’t remember much of what happened, he later said, with his first memory “waking up to the crash, super confused”. 

Pope remembers everything. 

“I had no time to react because he was there. He hit me from behind … my leg was severed immediately – apparently it was a metre away from me. It sounds like a horror movie.” 

The impact also broke the Pope’s left thighbone and fractured his right leg in 10 places, as well as his pelvis and two vertebrae. 

His left leg was gone so fast it took his brain “a bit longer to catch up”, Pope says. 

“I was like, ‘What the f*** just actually happened?’ … I felt numb, like someone had hit me in the leg with a massive sledgehammer.” 

He remembers drifting in and out of consciousness and one of the gym-goers who’d rushed to help from neighbouring Snap Fitness telling him he’d lost a leg, but “be calm, it’ll be alright”. 

“It was like, ‘Is this really happening? Two seconds ago I was lifting boxes out of my truck to do the same thing I’ve been doing for the last God knows how long, and now you’re telling me this?’” 

An x-ray showing Ben Pope's right leg, which was broken in 10 places when the delivery driver was struck by learner driver Oscar Ruffer. 

A “relatively new” police officer tourniqueted his mangled right leg, which Pope was later told protected it from the same fate as his left. 

Survival was another matter. 

There were moments he felt he was slipping between life and death, including a “conversation with Dad”. 

Pope’s father died suddenly in 2009 when the eldest-of-three siblings was 18. 

“He was saying, ‘What are you doing here?’ I just said, ‘I have no idea. I have no idea where we are’. 

“And he goes, ‘You’re in a good place, but now isn’t your time. What’s going to happen now is I’m going to walk that way and you’re going to walk back that way.’ And then I woke up. 

“I was thinking, ‘God, where am I? Is this real?’” 

‘It doesn’t look good’ 

A missed call from her son’s friend and workmate was the first sign something was wrong, Pope’s mum Caroline Pope says. 

It was 7.22am. 

“I called her back and she said there’d been an incident and it was Ben’s truck and they didn’t know exactly what happened.” 

By 7.30am Pope’s manager was telling her “it doesn’t look good”. 

The next call came as she waited for her sister to drive her to hospital. 

It was Pope. 

“He was slightly out of it and saying they were flying him over the Harbour Bridge, and that he was okay. 

“It gave me hope, but looking back it’s not something I believe they would normally do unless they thought that he was in such a bad condition he wouldn’t survive it.” 

He was gravely injured but conscious and Pope remembers his mother’s stricken voice. 

“I said, ‘Hi Mum’ and she said ‘Hi, how are you sweetheart?’ She was obviously crying. I said, ‘I’m going to the hospital’ and she said, ‘Yes, you are and we will see you there’.” 

Ben Pope was flown by rescue helicopter to Auckland City Hospital after his leg was amputated when a learner driver crashed into him as he unloaded his delivery truck last year. Photo / Michael Craig 

A trauma doctor phoned next, telling the terrified mum her son had lost one leg and might lose the other. 

Her boy was going straight to surgery, Caroline Pope heard the doctor say, as her sister’s car crawled through rush-hour traffic. 

“You can see road rage going on around you, people brushing their hair, singing to music and you just desperately want the roads to open up so you can get there.” 

Her long-held amputation phobia ended on the Esmonde Rd motorway on-ramp, Caroline Pope says. 

“It was a real wake-up call to say to myself, ‘Stop being so stupid … let’s just make sure he’s alive and we’ll deal with whatever comes after’.” 

By 9am, she was on her way up to Auckland City Hospital’s seventh floor. 

It’d be hours before she knew more. 

‘Fear in his eyes’ 

If minutes felt like hours for those who loved him, the opposite was true for Pope. 

He knows he was resuscitated at the scene, remembers being put into a rescue helicopter on the Stella Maris Primary School field, and had a brief phone call with his mum. 

But time disappeared, Pope says. 

“From the moment the accident happened to the time I woke in ICU [intensive care unit], which was obviously hours and hours, it only felt like half an hour for me.” 

Her son’s first surgery – to stabilise him – took about seven hours, Caroline Pope says. 

Seeing him after surgery with “tubes, wires and alarms everywhere” was confronting. 

After an hour, he started to open his eyes, trying to talk despite the tube down his throat. 

“He just wanted to know that we were all right.” 

He then looked towards the foot of the bed and back up at his mother. 

There was “fear in his eyes”, something no parent ever wants to see, Caroline Pope says. 

“That’s one moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget. I just said, ‘It’s alright, you will be alright, we will be alright’.” 

Ben Pope's endured eight surgeries since last year's crash, most recently to deal with an infection in his right leg. Photo / Dean Purcell 

Pope was alive, but so much lay ahead. 

Multiple surgeries totalling more than 30 hours in 10 days followed as doctors worked to repair damage inflicted in less than a second. 

One surgery stretched 10 hours; in another a surgeon cut through connective tissue in a limb-saving fasciotomy procedure to relieve extreme pressure after muscles in Pope’s right leg swelled. 

Family were at his side day and night, with his sister Catherine once helping change her brother’s dressings after feeling she “couldn’t say no” to a nurse’s request, Caroline Pope says. 

“She said there are sights and smells she’ll never forget.” 

A week after the crash a painkiller-induced bowel blockage was suspected when Pope stopped eating and drinking, and complained of a “majorly sore” abdomen. 

A sharp-eyed night-shift nurse took one look at him and “slammed the red button on the wall”. 

“People came running from everywhere.” 

Her son’s adrenal system wasn’t working and he was “20 minutes away from leaving us” when rushed to ICU, Caroline Pope says. 

Ben Pope pictured on the day left hospital two months after the crash that changed his life. 

New medication saw him right, and then began the visits from physios and occupational therapists, with wheelchair lessons and – after weeks stuck indoors – the chance to go outside. 

By November 18, Pope was home, although navigating the narrow halls and doorways of the family’s 1980s-era Glenfield house has forced her son to endure challenges that would “test the patience of a saint”, Caroline Pope says. 

“I don’t know whether I’d have had the courage. He’s my absolute hero.” 

Paralympics dream 

Almost six months ago, Pope got a prosthetic leg. 

Until an infection put him in hospital for two weeks last month, Pope was able to walk for up to 15 minutes, although putting his full weight on the prosthetic remained a work in progress. 

Most amputations are above or below the knee, but his “through the knee” one left Pope half his kneecap and “the best of both worlds”. 

“When I go to stand up, I’m kind of using my knee to bear weight. My knee’s kind of like my foot. If it’s an above [the knee] amputation people can’t do that. 

“If you’ve got a below the knee [amputation], people still have the bend of their natural knee, but they wouldn’t be able to put weight on the lower part of their limb whereas I can.” 

He has crutches, but they left him feeling “like I’ve got too many legs … like an octopus”. 

His badly injured right leg is still causing pain - if it had escaped injury he'd "probably be running marathons now", Ben Pope says. Photo / Dean Purcell 

The amputated left leg got people’s attention, but it’s the ongoing recovery of his right leg that causes most pain. 

As well as knee-to-ankle fractures, debris had to be removed from the top of his right leg, leaving him with a knee-to-hip scar resembling a shark bite, Pope says. 

“Everything on the left [leg’s] fine, it’s just not [all] here anymore. I get phantom pain, but the pain I’m feeling is from my right leg. 

“If the right leg hadn’t been touched I’d probably be running marathons right now”, he told the Herald before last month’s setback. 

On July 7 a doctor noticed the back of Pope’s right leg was so swollen it stuck out more than his knee. 

An operation to “clean everything out” followed, but he was back on the surgeon’s table after a post-op abscess “the size of my fist” was found. 

A Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) is delivering antibiotics to prevent infections until the “metalware” in his leg can be removed, Pope says. 

“I’ve got stitches in my leg. I’ve got a big tube coming out of my arm that’s all bandaged up at the moment with the IV in the top of my arm and I’ve got a suction dressing on my leg that’s got a nice cable thingy with a little power box tucked in my pocket. 

“I look like something out of a science fiction movie.” 

He’s hoping the next surgery is his last, Pope says. 

“My body’s been through so much … and I’m going to have to allow that bone to heal, so everything rehab-wise has been put on hold.” 

Ben Pope says he's previously been inspired watching Paralympians in action, such as multiple gold medal champion swimmer Dame Sophie Pascoe - pictured in 2015. After losing his leg last year, he sees the sporting event as something he can also aim for as part of his recovery. File photo / Greg Bowker 

The keen swimmer is itching to get back in the pool after hydrotherapy sparked a Paralympics dream. 

He’d seen “just how good” Paralympians are when attending an event before his own catastrophic injury. 

“They were moving just as fast as though they had all four limbs … I just want something to strive towards.” 

‘I feel like he got away with a lot’ 

Beyond the health setbacks, Pope continues to struggle with the outcome of Ruffer’s sentencing. 

The teen admitted in December to careless driving (driving on the wrong side of the road) causing injury and was sentenced to four months’ community detention with a 7pm to 7am seven-day-a-week curfew. 

He was also disqualified from driving for a year and given 12 months’ supervision with conditions including that he pay Pope $15,000 reparation, not use alcohol or illicit drugs and attend programmes as directed by his probation officer. 

A “positive” restorative justice meeting in February included an apology and $17,000 payment to Pope, Judge Fitzgibbon wrote in her sentencing notes. 

The meeting, Pope says, ended with a handshake. 

“You go in wanting to hate the people, and we left on okay terms.” 

He never wanted the teen jailed, but Ruffer’s sentence left him feeling like “my life isn’t worth a heck of a lot”. 

“I feel like he got away with a lot … I don’t feel like I was heard.” 

A restorative justice meeting went well, but he feels let down by the sentence subsequently given to the teenage driver who left him with life-changing injuries, Ben Pope says. Photo / Dean Purcell 

It rankled when Judge Fitzgibbon incorrectly referred to Ruffer being 17 when the crash took place, Pope says. 

After being alerted by the Herald to the error, the judge issued a minute acknowledging Ruffer had been 18. 

The sentencing decision has been recalled, the mistake rectified and a new judgment issued, she wrote on July 23. 

“The mistake as to the defendant’s age does not alter the judgment, nor the discount for youth applied to the sentencing starting point.” 

Ruffer’s guilty plea, lack of previous criminal convictions and his being “genuinely remorseful” were also among mitigating factors she considered, Judge Fitzgibbon wrote in her sentencing notes. 

“[Your sentence is] the least restrictive outcome and appropriate sentence making you accountable and most likely to assist with your rehabilitation.” 

As well as engaging in a community alcohol and drugs programme and attending wellbeing appointments, Ruffer had made a payment to his victim, she wrote. 

Pope will eventually receive a total of $32,000 from Ruffer, $15,000 less than his request for enough to cover costs including half the price of a vehicle big enough for his wheelchair, loss of earnings, fuel and medical expenses, he says. 

“I don’t think I was money hungry. I broke everything down quite well.” 

He'll need a bigger car once he's back behind the wheel, Ben Pope says. He included half the expected cost of the vehicle when calculating his reparations request before Oscar Ruffer's sentencing. Photo / Dean Purcell 

He also wanted Ruffer to do community service at hospitals and limb centres. 

“[He and his parents] were all on board with it [at the restorative justice meeting], but none of that was brought up at court either.” 

The Herald contacted Ruffer and his parents Jo and Tony Ruffer via Facebook Messenger for comment. 

“Oscar remains deeply sorry for the crash and the devastating consequences it has had on Ben and his family”, Jo Ruffer wrote in reply. 

“He is however unwilling to involve the media in the resolution of ongoing concerns.” 

Pope says his mum plans to speak to police prosecution about challenging the sentence, with the 28-year-old Land Transport Act Ruffer was charged under also in her sights. 

Reform is needed so justice for victims isn’t “laughable sentences”, with her family warned just before Ruffer’s sentencing to “aim low”, Caroline Pope says. 

“He’s a young man and prison’s not the place for him, but we thought it would’ve been at least eight to 12 months’ home detention. 

“This young man got discounts for age, pleading guilty, remorse. I felt like I was at the supermarket handing over coupons.” 

‘Driving makes me who I am’ 

Ten months after the split-second moment that changed his life, Pope is still haunted by “What ifs?” 

“What if I just jumped in the [back of the] truck, or what if I’d stepped to one side of the truck?” 

But he’s also ready for “What’s next?” 

Gilmours has kept the 11-year delivery driver veteran’s job open, with a sales representative role at the food and beverage wholesaler also available. 

But he wants to be back behind the wheel next year, Pope says. 

“I’ve still got my right leg. It’s just a matter of getting the strength back. I can’t wait – driving makes me who I am.” 

Ben Pope with the box containing the ashes of his severed lower left leg. A quote about happiness is fixed to the top. Photo / Dean Purcell 

Same goes for the limb lost in a moment of horror. 

It’s been cremated and some of the ashes will be crafted into a signet ring “so it’s always with me”, Pope says. 

The remainder are in a small box carrying a quote about happiness that’s “there when I need it”, he says. 

“Happiness is letting go of what you think your life is supposed to look like, and celebrating it for everything that it is.” 

Cherie Howie is an Auckland-based reporter who joined the Herald in 2011. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years and specialises in general news and features.