A bus ran over us!
Mum tells: I thought we were dead
As her mum lifts
- little Aria into the air, a gorgeous smile lights up her face. It’s hard to believe that a few weeks ago this sweet tot with blonde pigtails and a cheeky grin, and 29-year-old Renée Annan, were both pinned underneath a driverless runaway bus that had careened down a busy central Auckland street.
What’s even more remarkable is not only did mother and daughter survive the terrifying ordeal on January 13, but the West Auckland tot miraculously escaped with little more than a few cuts and grazes.
In a scene straight out of a horror flick, the pair disappeared underneath the enormous people mover, shocking distraught onlookers who feared the mum and her toddler were dead.
Resting at her Titirangi home after a spell in hospital, a grateful Renée says she’s still stunned they are alive to tell their story, and are convinced an angelic intervention spared them from tragedy.
Says Renée, who works for Rape Prevention Education, “I try not to do the ‘what ifs’ because it’s a rabbit hole, but it is just so miraculous if you think about it.
“We didn’t go under a wheel – the bus was stopped by that light pole and it didn’t drag me further. And when I
- think about Aria being left behind in one spot and me being dragged, it’s just so lucky. I’m not religious but it’s kind of like angels were looking out for us.”
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Adds Aria’s papa James, 33, who co-parents the 23month-old, “All my family say our mum was with her. I’ve prayed to her in the past and asked her to look over my daughter while I’m not there. I reckon she was with her.”
“She was the angel,” agrees a relieved Renée.
The mother-of-one is still nursing road rash wounds on her arms from where she was dragged 20 metres beneath the out-of-control tourist bus.
She recalls everything happening so fast – within a split second – meaning there was little time to escape.
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“My dad, Aria and I went on her first trip on a double decker bus from New Lynn to town,” explains Renée. “We went up to SkyCity for lunch and were walking down the street to catch the bus home. -
Aria was walking next to me, holding my hand, and I was pushing the pram.
“I heard yelling and saw the bus coming down and thought, ‘It’s reversing’, and then I saw it was going kind of fast and I started running. I was trying to pull and pick
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Aria up at the same time, but then it hit us and there was nothing I could do.
“It felt really hot and I felt we were both being crushed. Our hands were ripped apart and I was sure that we were both dead. And then I was like, ‘I’m not dead’, and then I was sure she was dead. That was the worst minute of my life,” she tells, reaching for a tissue.
Amazingly, when Renée managed to get out from under the bus, she discovered -
Aria alive, sitting in the arms of a road worker.
“I believe she just stayed in one spot and the bus went over her because she had no serious injuries,” says Renée. “We were quite far apart at the end and I couldn’t see her. The guys who pulled her out could hear her crying and they looked under, and she crawled towards them. Luckily we were both in the middle of the bus, not under the wheels.”
Apart from grazes and bruises and a small bump
- on her head, little Aria escaped unscathed and was discharged from Starship Children’s Hospital within hours.
Her devoted papa recounts the emotional moment he entered the hospital’s emergency department, fearing the worst.
“I walked into the hospital
- expecting to see Aria hurt – and there she was riding around on a toy ride-on tractor!” he laughs. “I asked, ‘Is that the same girl that’s been hit by a bus?’ I was like,
- it can’t be Aria. She saw me and said ‘Papa’.
“When I picked her up, that’s when she told me her story: ‘Papa, sore, sore Mamma, bus’, recounting the tot’s heart-wrenching sentence.
“That just broke me,” he shares with tear-filled eyes.
“In the hospital she’d talk about the bus in her own way
four or five times a day, but it got less and less,” tells Renée. “The The thing that would make her the most upset was as seeing my bandaged arms and d being worried about me.
“There was a week where I could hardly interact with her except when I was breastfeeding. I just feel so blessed that she has such a strong bond with her dad and her nanny, and people who can step in and be there for her.”
Renée and James say they are indebted to the strangers who helped their family that day – the road workers and pedestrians who bravely came to the aid of the stricken pair, setting aside their own safety, the emergency workers who cared for th them and d whanau who have selflessly supported them as they recover at home.
“I’ve watched the video of me screaming and it was horrible,” shares Renée. “You can see the guys from the construction site jump the fence and I heard them say, ‘Where’s the baby?’ A few people have talked about how there was no way to know if the bus was stable or what was happening, and all these people were under the bus focused on getting us out. No questions. That was amazing.”
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With Aria’s second birthday just days away, her parents are preparing a m massive Tiger WhoCametoTeaaWhoCametoTea- themed party at her playcentre to mark the milestone that almost didn’t happen.
Concludes James, “It feels like a celebration of life. To think she’s been hit by the bus and the way she just holds herself. We’re just so blessed to have her. She’s our little pounamu.”
Our hands were ripped apart and I was sure that we dead’ were both