From The Daily Examiner
However, only on two occasions did his driving at speed make it into print. These indicate that Mr. Cansdell did not have an opportunity to utter an untruth in the second instance. They also highlight the curious case of a parliamentarian rising to his feet in the NSW Legislative Assembly to create the very conditions which would see himself caught out and, of a politician who refused to see himself as one of those Pacific Highway hazards he railed against.
In 2003, the year he was elected to represent the Clarence electorate and before his penchant for being a potential danger on local roads came to light, he said this in the NSW Parliament on 14 November:
Mr STEVE CANSDELL (Clarence) [10.23 a.m.], by leave: Last Thursday I was asked if I would go to our local ambulance station at Grafton as an officer was in some distress and wanted to talk to me. I will refer to him as John. When I arrived he was decidedly upset, and we made a coffee and went outside to discuss his issues. Two days earlier there had been a major accident on the Pacific Highway 17 kilometres south of Grafton. A semi-trailer and a four-wheel-drive vehicle had had a head-on collision, resulting in one deceased and two injured. This accident has brought the total loss of life on the Pacific Highway in 2003 to 44—almost one a week. John said he wanted me to relay his story to Parliament. He said he wanted the politicians to fully understand the tragic reality of what is happening daily on our roads and highways. He stressed repeatedly the urgency of fast-tracking the Pacific Highway divided highway project.
John told me that on arrival at the accident scene there was a semi-trailer on fire, a section of the vegetation on the roadside was flattened and there were the crushed remains of what looked like a Pajero four-wheel-drive vehicle. Near the car were four people, John said with tears welling in his eyes as he described the scene. One female with serious spinal injuries was lying on the ground, with an injured male sitting over her holding her hand. Although injured himself and very traumatised, he was comforting her and talking to her. John paused for a minute as he wiped tears from his eyes before going on. There were two more adults, one female and one male. The female was deceased, with horrific injuries and covered in blood. Her partner was kneeling next to her and cradling her in his arms. Her blood was all over him and he was crying. He held her in his arms and kept repeating, "She's the love of my life, she's the love of my life."
The ambulance office put his arms around the man and hugged him, consoled him as best he could until the ambulance chaplain arrived and took over. John then went on with his job of securing the safety and wellbeing of the other accident victims and then relaying the injured and deceased to hospital. While at the hospital, John told me that the partner of the deceased rang his father-in-law to inform him of the death of his daughter. Halfway through his phone call he broke down and handed the phone to the chaplain, who confirmed the tragedy to the parents of the young lady who lost her life. The father said that he had to hang up the phone as his wife had just run out the door and onto the street screaming. These are the tragic realities of road accidents. As I said earlier, the ambulance officer asked me—no, he begged me—to bring home to our politicians the horror that these unsung heroes, the ambulance officers, have to confront on a regular basis. They want us, the politicians, to get on with the job of fixing the highways, particularly the Pacific Highway, and to stop playing politics with people's lives.