MY 90 MINS OF HELL
Woman trapped in car for 90 minutes by fallen power lines
RACHAEL Page (pictured) and her pet dog spent a terrifying 90 minutes trapped by live power lines after they crashed on top of her car (inset). The mother-of-three had been driving to pick up her daughter when “all of a sudden something came crashing down” on the Gold Coast Hwy. “I was horrified. I didn’t think I was going to get out of the car alive. I just saw all this wire tangled around my car,’’ she said yesterday.
A MOTHER-OF-THREE says she’s “not OK” after a terrifying 90 minutes trapped by live power lines which fell on to her car on the Gold Coast Hwy.
Rachael Page, 43, left her Palm Beach unit wearing pyjamas about 9.30pm on Monday to pick up her youngest daughter, 20, from work in Coolangatta.
She was driving 60km/h south bound in the far lefthand lane, near Fourth Avenue, when “all of a sudden something came crashing down”.
Ms Page came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the road with her Toyota Yaris entangled with power lines.
“It was all in slow motion,” she told the Bulletin yesterday.
“I was horrified. I didn’t think I was going to get out of the car alive. I just saw all this wire tangled around my car.
“The first person on the scene was a lady who got off her motorbike. I just said ‘Please tell me I’m going to be ok’ – and by the look on her face I knew it wasn’t good.”
Ms Page suffers anxiety and was trying to keep herself from having a panic attack and calm her “frantic” Maltese rescue dog Pippie until emergency services could free them.
Energex, police, paramedics, fire and rescue crews arrived within minutes diverting traffic and working to disable the live wires and remove them.
“They had to use pliers to cut it away. It was like a barb wire fence,” she said.
“I was trapped for almost an hour and a half and was just sitting there like a ticking time bomb.
“All the emergency services said they’ve been doing this job for 30 to 40 years and have never seen anything like it. They said they’ve seen a powerline on the roof of a car but not entangled like mine was.”
Her daughter Paris, driven by a colleague from work to the scene, was “shocked” at what she saw.
Ms Page couldn’t believe she was still alive when finally able to escape.
Paramedics asked if she would like to go to hospital but she declined, getting a lift home from a tow truck driver about 11pm.
“I thought I was OK. But when I got home I just grabbed my daughter and said ‘Please give me a hug’.
“I broke down. I couldn’t stop crying. I went to bed at 3am and woke up at 5am. I was crying all morning.
“How it didn’t catch on fire or how I got out of it alive I don’t know.”
Ms Page, who works as a casual nurse in aged care, said her car was badly damaged and has no idea where it was towed to. “I’ve got no car. I can’t afford to not work as I’m a casual. I can’t live without my car.”
She planned visiting a doctor as she was “not OK”.
An Energex spokesman said strong winds may have caused the power lines to fall.
Ms Page did the “right thing” staying calm and not opening the doors, he said.
I DIDN’T THINK I WAS GOING TO GET OUT OF THE CAR ALIVE. I JUST SAW ALL THIS WIRE TANGLED AROUND MY CAR. RACHAEL PAGE