‘Wear a helmet’: Mum’s plea

The mother of a woman who was hit by a car while riding her bicycle on Easter Sunday has reinforced the continued importance of wearing a helmet.

Mum-of-two Khristina Duke, 30, suffered serious brain injuries after she was hit by a car while riding her bike on Easter Sunday, in a horror crash at the intersection of West and Stenner streets in Kearney Springs.

Ms Duke was taken to Toowoomba Hospital before being transferred by helicopter to the PA Hospital in Brisbane in a critical condition where she spent the next couple of weeks in ICU after emergency surgery to remove the right side of her skull.

Her mother Teena Duke said Khristina woke from her coma last Thursday and “is recovering day by day”.

“Things are coming back and she’s improving so much,” Ms Duke said.

Khristina had gained feeling back in her extremities, and was showing positive signs of response, such as tracking her mum with her eyes, squeezing her hand and wiggling her toes.

“She actually clicked her fingers twice,” Ms Duke said.

While there is a long road to go, Khristina had been moved to a neuroscience ward, she said. “I have been hotel hopping to be close to her and be there to hold her hand and talk to her every day,” she said.

Ms Duke said if Khristina had been wearing a helmet, she believed there would have been a different outcome.

“I am certain that the damage would not have been so severe,” she said. “She will never be the same person she was. Please wear a helmet.”

Khristina was riding south through the lights at the intersection of West and Stenner streets at 6pm when the crash happened.

Investigations are ongoing and police are appealing for witnesses or anyone with relevant dashcam footage.