Post by NZBC on Jan 1, 2014 16:04:15 GMT 12
A mother trapped in a rolled van was asking rescuers about her baby daughter as she slipped in and out of consciousness.
The 11-month-old girl was lying critically injured on the road, and died hours later.
The accident, the first of three fatal crashes over the weekend, happened on Saturday when the van the mother was driving left the road on the Kapiti Coast, flipping up to six times before landing on its roof.
As firefighters worked to free the woman from the wreck, her baby lay about 2m away in the care of an off-duty paramedic.
The baby's father, a passenger in the van who escaped the crash with minor injuries, sat "stunned" in silence in front of the car, a senior firefighter said.
Paraparaumu fire station officer John Arthur said the mother asked after her husband and child as she slipped in and out of consciousness.
"It's always difficult when there's children and families involved. All you can tell her is that the baby is with the ambulance staff. That's all you can say."
It took the fire crew about 30 minutes to cut the mother from the car, Mr Arthur said. She was taken by ambulance while her baby was flown by helicopter to Wellington Hospital where she later died.
"It was a single vehicle crash," Mr Arthur said. "It went off the road to the left and they've gone into the flax. They came back on to the road and they started rolling. It rolled five or six times."
When the first fire crew arrived at the scene about five minutes after the crash, the baby was out of the vehicle. It was not known if she had been thrown from the van during the crash or if a passersby had removed her.
An off-duty paramedic who had been travelling behind the car worked on the baby until ambulance crews arrived.
The mother, in her early 30s, was last night in a serious condition in intensive care, a Wellington Hospital spokesman said. The father had been released from hospital. Baby, 4-year-old killed in crashes
By Sam Boyer
8:09 AM Monday Dec 30, 2013
An 11-month-old girl died on Saturday when the van her mother was driving left the road on the Kapiti Coast, flipping up to six times before landing on its roof.
The woman, in her early 30s, was flown to Wellington hospital in a serious condition. By Brendan Manning
8:48 AM Tuesday Dec 31, 2013
The baby's father, a passenger in the van, escaped the crash with minor injuries. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11179746
An 11-month-old girl from Paraparaumu died after her parents' car hit a barrier and flipped on to its roof on Saturday on State Highway 1 near Raumati South, where two lanes merge into one.
Kapiti Coast police are investigating the accident, which snarled northbound holiday traffic for almost three hours. No other vehicles were involved.
The baby girl suffered serious head injuries and was flown to Wellington Hospital, where she died yesterday morning. Her death has been referred to the coroner.
Her father was discharged from hospital yesterday, but her mother remained in intensive care.