Quadriplegic in crash but no one stops
Rubber-neckers just gawk as boyfriend carries former jockey from totalled car
Sophia Malthus was meant to be celebrating her 22nd birthday at a restaurant in the heart of Auckland. Instead she was sharing a roast chicken with her family from her hospital bed after she and her boyfriend were caught up in a highspeed crash on the city’s Southern Motorway.
It was a second brush with death for Malthus, who was paralysed when she was thrown from her horse during training two years ago.
It was about 1.30pm and raining on Thursday when Malthus’ boyfriend slowed as they approached heavy traffic. Then a van slammed them from behind, shunting them into another car.
A driver who had been following said the van hit at a high speed.
The crash near Greenlane blocked two lanes and caused major congestion, with a truck required to separate their Mazda station wagon from the other two vehicles. But although there was a lot of rubber-necking, no one stopped to help — even when her boyfriend had to carry Malthus from their totalled car.
The boyfriend said: “I had to yell at people to start doing things. I feel bad, because I was cussing at these guys, telling them, you call the cops, you call the ambulance. No one stopped.
“I was surprised — if you see a guy carrying a girl out of a car crash, you’d stop and make sure they’re okay.”
Malthus, a former jockey, was paralysed with a spinal-cord injury in 2016. She lost most sensation from the collarbone down, can’t move her legs and has minimal arm movement.
She has become an inspiration online to disabled and able-bodied people thanks to her infectious positivity.
Her Instagram post telling followers of Thursday’s crash was typically lighthearted — sending out “special thanks” to the van driver. “I’ve always wanted whiplash and a CT scan for my bday”, she wrote.
Her text to her parents was equally blase because she didn’t want them worrying after she was admitted to Auckland City Hospital.
“I didn’t quite let my parents know how serious it was — we just said we’d been in a little crash,” she said. “It’s more just that they’re sick of me ending up in hospital.”
In fact the crash could easily have been worse. The car was “completely totalled, front and back, it was crunched in together”, her boyfriend said.
Both suffered whiplash, bruises and airbag burns, and Malthus needed a CT scan because, lacking feeling in most of her body, she couldn’t tell if there was other damage.
They understood the drivers in the other cars had escaped relatively uninjured — and the van driver had apologised profusely.
“I think he was in shock — he felt really bad . . . He just said he looked away for a minute,” her boyfriend said.