Last Tuesday December 1 was a breathless, warm summer’s day. It was 2pm and glazier David Burley was on his way from Taree to Gloucester for an appointment with his chiropractor. Barely past the new Dyers Crossing turn-off on Avalon Road, he drove for another 100 metres or so before grabbing his can of ginger beer to quench a thirst. He briefly glanced upwards to take a gulp and saw a large eucalypt branch snap off a tree almost directly above him.

At 80km an hour, instinct kicked in and he swerved to avoid it, ending up on the wrong side of the road just as the biggest part of the branch hit and stopped the car in its tracks.

“If I hadn’t looked up, I’d be dead,” he said from his home the following day.

“I ducked but have a little bit of concussion and sore shoulders and bruising from the roof and windscreen where they caved in and from where I hit the steering wheel and seatbelt,” he said.

David was able to get out of his car and half a dozen drivers and a nearby resident removed the branch, which measured around 40cms in diameter and five metres in length.

“It’s strange, it was such a still day, not a breath of wind,” he said.

It was the second time he has had a close brush with a branch. In 2006 he was knocked four feet off his ladder by a lemon-scented eucalypt branch. The fall fractured his back in six places. He was airlifted to John Hunter by chopper and spent the next six months in a full body brace.

Now forever grateful to his can of ginger beer for avoiding the worst of the impact, David is in more need than ever for his chiropractic adjustment. But faced with Bucketts Way or Avalon Rd, his route is uncertain.

“I might have to fly,” he managed to laugh.