Jockey Megan Taylor considers herself lucky to be alive walking away from a freak accident.
Taylorwas driving to work in the NSW Riverina when a overhanging branch fell and virtually crushed her car.
The branch fell just metres in front of her Mitsubishi, leaving the Tumut apprentice with no time to avoid contact.
The branch pierced through the windscreen and missed Taylor by merely centimetres.
Remarkably, she was able to walk away from the accident with just one bruise and a cut, that required four stitches.
“I feel very lucky,” Taylor said. “I really think that there was someone on my shoulder that morning looking after me.”
It was 4.45am on Wednesday morning as Taylor was travelling her usual six kilometre trip from home to the Tumut Racecourse for trackwork.
Taylor saw the branch fall and had no time to do anything but brace herself.
“I saw it fall but it was too far gone for me to do anything,” she recalls.
“All I knew was that I was going to hit it, and thought how is this going to end?
“It was still really dark and my lights were smashed and I didn’t think it was that bad until I saw the pictures of the car afterwards. I can’t believe the damage to it.”
Taylor was wearing her trackwork vest on the way to work on December 27, which may have helped her from further injuries.
Taylor will miss this week’s race meetings at Gundagai and Albury but hopes to be back in the saddle for Wagga on January 12.
The stitches prevent her from being able to wear a helmet. Once she has those removed, she hopes to be back.
“I feel fine,” Taylor said.
It caps off an eventful year for Taylor, who became the first female rioder to win the Southern District jockey’s premiership.
