Stream rescuer tells of little girls’ terrified screams
The panicked screams of two young children as they desperately clung to their father on top of a slowly sinking car near Hastings will forever be etched in Duane Awa’s mind.
He was travelling down Ruahapia Rd from work on Thursday when he noticed an empty car half-parked on the road and a woman — thought to be the mother of the children, travelling in the car behind — standing 10 metres down the bank.
“I knew straight away . . . I actually saw the fence had been busted and that’s when my heart started racing and I knew exactly what was going on — a car had gone off the road and into the Karamu Stream,” Awa said.
Without thinking, he had stripped down and jumped in.
“It was that cry, that scream that really got me. It hit the heart, eh. That was enough for me to do what I had to do and jump.”
As he swam to the halfsubmerged car, all he could think of was the two girls, who he believed were about 3 and 5. It wasn’t until he got closer that he saw the youngest was still half-trapped in the vehicle.
“I believe the father was ready to go and retrieve the second but he was held up with the elder girl, so I was able to jump in and grab her through the back window.
“You could see it in their eyes. They were so scared . . . I told them ‘everything is going to be okay’.”
Several other people went on to the railway bridge and helped Awa and the father lift the two girls up.
Angela, an ex-ambulance officer whose daughter died in a single car crash in 2013, saw the family’s car floating on Thursday and said she had an awful feeling tragedy was about to strike again.
When she arrived she comforted the older girl and gave her a blanket before checking both of them.
“They didn’t have any obvious external injuries but they could have had internal injuries. They were absolutely saturated — it was 7.30pm so it was dark, it was cold — they could . . . have been in shock.”
Angela said she told the family they needed to get medical attention but they drove off before emergency services arrived.
She remained worried about them, but was pleased it hadn’t been a fatal accident.
“I have a grandson growing up without his mum. It’s the first crash I have seen since then so I didn’t know how I’d react to it, but . . . as soon as I heard the cries of those kids I just wanted them to be safe.”
Sergeant Neil Baker said yesterday things were still “a little grey” but he understood the car had failed to take an intersection and had driven straight through a fence, ending up in the stream.
Police were trying to find those involved, who had left in a third vehicle which turned up. “We believe we know who it is but we are yet to speak to them.”
But he had warm words for Awa: “It is quite heroic what he has done to save this family. It . . . could have easily resulted in a fatality.”