After more than 18 months on the sidelines, Paul ‘Sludge’ Andrews tells Big Rigs he’s been given the all-clear to get back behind the wheel of ‘The Phantom’.
It hasn’t been an easy ride for truckie Sludge in recent times.
In March 2023, a horrific motorcycle crash left Sludge with significant injuries, including a bleed to the brain, fractured bones and torn ligaments.
While the visible signs of the incident soon faded, Sludge continues to grapple with the effects of his head injury – including vertigo and issues with his balance.
As a result, it was a long time before he was able to get back behind the wheel.
“I got my licence back in October,” Sludge told Big Rigs. “It’s nice to be able to drive again but I don’t intend on going back into driving properly this year. I think I’m still about 12 months off – and even then, it might be two or three days a week. I don’t know if full time work will ever happen again.
“But I do have some local loads here in Perth that I’ll be able to do over the next few months. I can load one day, and then do the drive the next day.”
Sludge got his licence back in October, but says he’ll need to pass another medical before he can get back into road trains. Image: SludgeSludge’s first taste of being back behind the wheel of The Phantom came during a recent trip from Perth to Merredin, transporting steel work for a new train station platform.
“That trip was hard work. The traffic is what does it to me now, it just wears me out. We got to Northam at about 6pm and I was buggered so we stayed the night, and then I did the next two hours of driving the next morning,” explained Sludge.
“That was probably a one-day job but I ended up turning it into two days. There were two trailers to bring up but I can’t road train anymore so I had a mate come up with me in another truck.
“For now it’s just single trailer work, no oversize or anything until I pass another medical which is probably another three or four months away. I’m allowed to drive a semi, but I need another medical to drive a road train or oversize.”
For that first trip back in the truck, the Outback Truckers production crew came along to document the journey for the next season of the show. Sludge has been a regular on the popular television series across many seasons.
Following that trip, Sludge also attended two big trucking events in the one weekend, on separate sides of the country – the Boort Truck Show in Victoria on Saturday October 12 and the Camp Quality Convoy for Kids in Perth on Sunday October 13.
“We were in Victoria for the Boort Truck Show and then left there at about 3pm, raced back to Melbourne to visit my grandson who lives there, then flew home to be at Perth Convoy for Kids on the Sunday,” said Sludge, admitting he needed the following two days to recover from the huge weekend.
“Both events went right off. I didn’t drive in the Convoy For Kids, we went straight to the Hockey Stadium so we could park up and take it easy.
“I still need to be careful with my health the way it is, which kills me. But it was a beautiful event and a big weekend!”
Making his return behind the wheel even more of a milestone, Sludge revealed he’s also had to recover from yet another set-back to get to this point.
It was about four months ago that Sludge fell off a ladder at home after attempting to change out a light that wasn’t working. “I ended up breaking my back and was unconscious in the driveway. I woke up 45 minutes later with the ambulance there. That took it out of me for about another month or so.
“But I think that incident also put me back into line and made me realise just how serious I am. I thought I’d be water skiing and having fun again by Christmas. But I can’t see that happening for a long time. I can’t afford to bang my head again because I know what it does it to me. The kids hide the ladders from me too now because they don’t want me using them!”
Looking ahead, while Sludge is planning to do some runs in the truck here and there, he’s also doing some work painting up containers. “I have a heap of containers to paint for now. I can do an hour of work or three hours of work, so that’s really good. I can do it at my own pace.
“I do lots of things at home too. I’ve been painting trucks and trailers for friends as well. They know it’ll take me twice as long but they’re happy because I’m doing something. I’m getting better, because when I know I’m tired I can have a rest.
“I’m also hoping to drive The Phantom to Melbourne and do some of the truck shows on the east coast.”
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