REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Friday, August 20, 2004

A CANUNGRA woman lay dazed and injured in near–freezing temperatures for 18 hours after her car plummeted more than 200m over a cliff in Lamington National Park.

Suffering leg and chest injuries, dehydration and hypothermia, incredibly Vicki Sinclair was able to joke with rescuers as she was handwinched to safety.

For almost three hours, a team of 30 people manned ropes and pulleys to inch her to the top of the sheer cliff the oldfashioned way. The team called encouragement to each other as they hauled the 36-year-old to the top.

Paramedics said Vicki talked to herself and sang songs to stay positive during the rescue drama.

Her frantic partner David Aitken was one of at least 30 emergency workers and volunteers who helped pull her to safety in the fading light.

He rushed to be by her side but he was too hesitant to kiss his partner’s badly bruised and battered face. Instead, he smiled in relief and promised everything would be all right.

“It’s just typical Vicki,” Mr Aitken said. “It’s just like her to be cracking jokes.

“She still has her sense of humour, but she is still pretty banged up.”

Heavily medicated to ease her pain, Vicki was dazed and confused by her terrifying ordeal but remained conscious. Rescuers described her survival as “little short of a miracle”.

“She is one very strong woman,” RACQ CareFlight paramedic Gavin Clark said.

“She was conscious, stable and coherent the whole time. She’s very lucky to get out of the car.”