The good Samaritan
Three people were dead, two cars were mangled and a noworphaned baby girl was crying in her baby seat as her brother was pulled from the wreckage.
Nothing could have prepared Southland farmer Suzanne Harvey for what she was about to see.
What started as a quiet Sunday evening of television in her living room with her husband and their daughter, was about to change.
In one car was Jesse Shortland, his wife Samantha, their 8-month-old daughter Skylar and their 2-year-old son Heath. In the other car was 22-year-old German tourist Marina Liebl, only a few days into her journey of New Zealand.
Their collision could be heard from Harvey’s living room. The Dipton farmer grabbed the torch, jumped in her car and headed straight for the scene.
The Shortlands’ car was ‘‘an absolute mess’’.
‘‘You could see they had had a horrendous impact and I checked with the man that was beside me near where the baby was crying and he said ‘no, no response’.’’
‘‘I said ‘right, I’ll take the baby. I’ll get the baby and do what I can’.’’
The crying girl looked physically OK, but Harvey was concerned about internal injuries as he comforted her. Meanwhile, Heath Shortland ‘‘cuddled’’ into truck driver Andy Haywood, who said the boy was ‘‘frightened as hell’’.
Harvey sat in one of the firefighters’ vehicles with the heater on and looked after the baby until the ambulance crew arrived.
Looking back at the past week, Harvey says her thoughts have been with the families involved – children who will grow up without their parents, and the German family far away.
Despite the horrific scene, she would do it again.
‘‘I wouldn’t hesitate. When people need help you go and help them. Noone can prepare you for anything like that. But you just get on and do what you’ve got to do at the time.’’