As
Doug Tait lay unconscious inside the twisted wreckage of his car, his wife
thought she had lost him.
Catherine Tait will never forget waking up, trapped inside the Holden
Commodore with her husband and three children after a horrific crash near
Waikanae on December 30.
"I remember being blacked out and I could hear my kids crying in the
background and that was getting louder and louder and louder," she said
from her Wellington Hospital bed yesterday. "I started to feel the pain in
my stomach area. Then I looked up and saw the dash right in front of me.
"I looked over at Doug and he was still out to it. I really believed he
had gone and I had lost my husband. I was just thinking, 'How on earth are we
going to get out of this?"'
The couple and their three children were driving home to Levin along State
Highway 1 between Paraparaumu and Waikanae when the head-on crash happened on
December 30, killing the driver of the other car, Lance Rielly, 39, and his
stepdaughter Stephanie Fox, 18. It was the 11th fatal crash of a holiday period
in which 18 people died.
"I remember seeing a vehicle skidding on my side of the road towards
us," Mr Tait said. "There's no sound that is scarier than the sound of
the brakes locking up and then the impact with the sound of metal crunching. I
had no time to react." He remembers little else of the crash, but his wife
recalls the relief when her children were pulled from the car, followed by fear
at the smell of smoke and petrol.
"Doug was still out [unconcious] and they [the rescuers] said, `No, no
you've got to get away,' and I thought, `God, this is it, I'm going to get blown
up.'
"Doug woke up and he looked at me and his face was just ... I could see
part of his nose down by my arm ... and just blood everywhere. He said to me,
`We've got to get out of here, we've got to get out of here."'
With the help of other motorists he escaped, but Mrs Tait couldn't. She was
pinned inside.
"I just closed my eyes and then I heard, `Someone's got help, someone's
here.' I looked out my window and there were these two guys with fire
extinguishers. I was just so relieved. "Then I just felt the excruciating
pain after that." Mrs Tait was cut from the car and taken to Wellington
Hospital, where she is still recovering from the serious injuries she suffered.
Her husband and children were all treated at hospital, but have been allowed to
go home.
They hold no ill feeling toward Mr Rielly and want to meet his family.
"It would mean a lot to me. It's all part of the healing process," Mr
Tait said. Both he and his wife urged motorists to slow down and think twice
about last-minute passing manoeuvres. "You don't know how fast this
happens. "One bad move rips your life apart; not just yours, but
everyone's. He [Mr Rielly] paid for it dearly with his life ... it's not often
the victims survive. We're very fortunate."
The same stretch of road, described as "a proven killing ground" by
Kapiti Coast doctor Chris Lane, also claimed the life of 17-year-old Kelly
Thompson when the car she was driving crossed the centre line on September 30.
The passing lane has now been permanently closed.
© Fairfax NZ News
