Family’s Christmas journey agonisingly broadsided in deadly smash
A survivor of a fatal Christmas Eve crash has shared the details of being trapped in the wrecked car with his wife, 4-year-old daughter and dog.
Daniel Woolley has a strong message for drivers to slow down and think about his family’s ordeal before making any rash decisions. He has also set up a Facebook page where anyone can “talk about healing after a tragedy or trauma”.
He hasn’t been able to see his wife Rachel since the crash: she is recovering in Waikato Hospital with broken legs and ribs. His daughter Teegan was also flown to hospital after the tragic collision in the Bay of Plenty, but without serious injury.
They were three of five people hurt in the crash. The driver of the second car involved was killed. Shaquille Dempsey, 24, of Tu¯rangi, was one of 17 people who died on roads over the official Christmas/ New Year holiday period.
Bulls’ Woolley was driving to Whitianga before a car came hurtling at them “fully sideways” on State Highway 1 in Motutere, south of Taupo¯, just after 7pm.
“All of a sudden there’s a whole lot of smoke, and I’m in Tokyo Drift. There’s a white WRX coming towards us at over 100km/h, the police estimated the speed. I look at Rachel and said, ‘I can’t do anything’.
“And then he hit us. I didn’t hear a thing. It was quiet. I didn’t know what had happened.”
Dust from the airbags cleared and Woolley saw his wife’s face and mouth “covered” in blood.
“She’s shaking like people shouldn’t be shaking. It’s horrible. You don’t want to see your wife looking like that ever.”
He panicked when he couldn’t see his daughter in the back seat.
“My daughter is down at my wife’s feet, looking up at me, upside down.”
A passerby opened Rachel’s door and somehow she walked over to open his door. He was trapped by the steering wheel and car engine.
“Rachel gets out of the car with two broken legs, a broken elbow and four broken ribs, comes round to the other side of the car with another guy, and she got my door open.”
That was fortunate because the car then caught fire.
Woolley’s foot was floppy, “like a limp sausage, just flopping around”. His hand had gone through the windscreen as well.
Two men lifted him to the side of the road, to lie next to his wife.
“She doesn’t look alright, and I’m thinking, ‘F*** what have I done?’”
He remembered his fox terrier was in the car and said having pillows in the back had saved both his daughter and the dog.
Woolley was taken in an ambulance to Taupo¯ Hospital, before being transferred to Whanganui Hospital and eventually Wellington Hospital. He hasn’t seen Teegan or Rachel.
“It’s going to take a long time before I can walk again.”
He thanked first responders, and was grateful to hospital nurses who bought his daughter presents on Christmas Day.
“They went over and above . . . took her mind off what was going on.”
Woolley said his “heart goes out” to the family of the driver who died .
He has set up a Facebook page, HOHOHO, “where anyone can talk about healing after a tragedy or trauma”. A Givealittle page was set up by a friend to aid the trio’s recovery.