‘Just tell me now, are they dead?’ – husband finds crash
A husband looking for his wife after she didn’t return home from dropping her brother at work, came across her mangled car at a Wellington crash scene.
Genna Te Kahika was driving brother Jeremy Hatley to work around 4.20 on Tuesday morning when her vehicle was hit by another, which had travelled 10 kilometres the wrong way on State Highway 2 from Petone.
The two passengers of the other vehicle died at the scene on the flyover between the Molesworth St and Aotea Quay onramps.
Genna Te Kahika, a mother of two and childcare worker, was seriously injured, along with her brother. Both are being treated in Wellington Regional Hospital’s ICU.
Her husband, Gideon Te Kahika, said he had fallen back to sleep after she left their Brooklyn home at 4am. By 6am, he thought it was odd she hadn’t returned and tried to reach her on her cellphone, but she had left it at home.
Wondering if she had run out of fuel on the motorway, Te Kahika set off with the couple’s 4-year-old son Tyler, to try to find her. ‘‘We got down to the Terrace Tunnel and saw that the tunnel was closed, and I was like ‘oh what, s---!’’’
He then drove to Hutt Rd, and realised there had been an accident when he saw emergency services. ‘‘I went all the way up to Johnsonville to turn around and come back down the motorway, and I was just hoping it wasn’t her car ... Then I got up close and I saw the car.’’
Te Kahika said he pulled over on the motorway, jumped out of the car and started asking where Genna and Hatley were.
‘‘The cop was like ‘Come over here! Come over here!’ and I was like ‘Just tell me now! Are they dead?’ Then he was like ‘Nah, they’re in hospital’ and that was a relief, but I didn’t know what the injuries were, so I wasn’t too sure what I was going to see when I saw them,’’ he said.
Te Kahika said the siblings had serious injuries but escaped without a scratch to their heads or faces, Te Kahika said.
He believed their seatbelts, which had left marks on their bodies from the impact, had saved their lives.
His wife underwent a six-hour surgery after suffering a broken hip, fibia, leg, ankle and broke ‘‘just about every bone in her foot’’, Te Kahika said.
Hatley had two surgeries and suffered broken bones in his leg, multiple cracked ribs, and damaged an artery in his heart.
‘‘The doctors said they will be okay, it’s just going to be a long recovery,’’ Te Kahika said.
Another family member, Ruby Te Kahika, visited Genna in hospital and was surprised at how responsive she was. ‘‘She is as tough as.’’