page_title: Ramsay Street crash
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Ramsay Street crash / Development
caption_attribution_description: Australian actor James Mason at the TV Week Logie Nominations In Sydney, Australia
context_page_description: The "Ramsay Street crash" is a storyline from the Australian television soap opera Neighbours, which began on 20 August 2012 when six of the show's teenage characters were involved in a car accident. Executive producer, Richard Jasek, revealed the storyline during a July 2012 interview, stating that the consequences would last for the rest of the year. It was later announced that the storyline would focus on two major causes of road fatalities and injuries among young Australian drivers – distraction and the overloading of cars. In the "Ramsay Street crash" it is peer pressure that decides the character's fate. The cast and crew filmed the crash scenes over two nights at a driver training centre in Melbourne. Planning for the shoot began six weeks beforehand and multiple cameras were used to catch the various angles of the crash. A promotional trailer for the storyline was released on 27 July.
  The plot saw the teenage characters; Andrew Robinson, Chris Pappas, Ed Lee, Natasha Williams and Summer Hoyland heading to a concert in the city, initially unaware that Sophie Ramsay has hidden herself in the boot of the car.
context_section_description: To celebrate Andrew Robinson's birthday, the Ramsay Street teens decide to attend a concert in the city. Andrew, Natasha (Valentina Novakovic), Summer and Ed (Sebastian Gregory) get into Chris' car earlier in the evening, unaware that Sophie Ramsay (Kaiya Jones) is hiding in the boot, having rebelled against her uncle's decision to forbid her from attending the concert. Halfway into the journey, the group hear a mysterious ringing coming from the back of the car and when Chris pulls over he discovers Sophie hiding in the boot with her phone. Andrew just wants to get to the concert, so he persuades Chris to let Sophie sit on Summer's lap. Chris "reluctantly agrees" knowing that she will not have a seat belt on. Mason revealed "Chris really is a pretty sensible, straightforward kind of guy who knows the rules - his morals are good. The last things he wants to do is jeopardise anyone's safety by doing something silly. But he gets talked into overloading the car by letting Sophie get in with them. He wants to please his friends and make sure everyone's happy - and it doesn't help that the whole group use a bit of peer pressure to convince him. The others just don't see any danger in what they're doing." Shortly after restarting their journey, a heated argument breaks out between Natasha and Andrew when she learns he has sold their gambling app without her permission. 
  Summer and Ed join in with the argument and there is a lot of shouting. Lucas explained "Summer's aware they've overloaded the car, so she wants to keep calm. She can sense Chris is getting stressed by all the yelling, so she's very tense." As Chris tries to concentrate on the road, Andrew accidentally bumps his arm and he suddenly loses control of the car, which swerves, hits an embankment and flips over before coming to a stop. Sophie is critically injured after being thrown from the vehicle, while Andrew has a serious head injury and Ed is also in a bad way. Rhys Lawson (Ben Barber) comes across the scene and puts his own life at risk to start "frantic" rescue efforts. He cuts his hand in the process, but refuses to get it looked when the emergency services arrive. Rhys eventually finds Sophie and when she reaches the hospital, she is rushed into surgery. A writer for Soap World commented that "a terrified" Natasha is worried Ed will not wake up, before she can tell him she loves him. Mason stated that Chris is wracked with guilt and worried for his friends. Things become worse for him when Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) arrives at the hospital and, after learning his son and niece are in a serious condition, threatens to sue him. Mason revealed that Paul is angry and wants someone to pay for what happened, while Dennis explained "Yes, it's typical Paul - someone has to pay and he decides that Chris should take all of the blame before he knows the full story." 
  Chris is questioned by the police about the accident. Summer and Natasha later admit that they blame Andrew for the crash and he is slowly pushed out of the group. Sophie's condition starts to improve, but she faces "a long recovery" and is sent away to Sydney to receive treatment. The hand injury Rhys sustained forces him to cancel an impending trip to Japan. His girlfriend, Vanessa Villante (Alin Sumarwata) persuades him to have his injured hand examined and he has to undergo minor surgery. Rhys later has some tests performed on his hand and is told that he only has a five per cent chance of a full recovery. Barber revealed "He is devastated - becoming a surgeon is the most important thing to him and he has no plan B. This is a guy who manipulated himself into the surgical programme, it means that much to him." The crash also affects on Andrew's future when he is diagnosed with epilepsy. Andrew begins displaying "worrying neurological symptoms" including; dizziness, severe headaches and black outs. Smith told Brygel "To start with Andrew just ignores the symptoms. He blames them on the crash. He doesn't want to delve into things. But there comes a point where he can't ignore the symptoms anymore." De
caption: James Mason plays Chris Pappas, the driver of the car.
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