The horror Boxing Day crash that killed Jessica Falkholt’s immediate family will forever haunt Lisa Elmas.
The 44-year old was first on the scene that fateful day, which saw four people die, including Jessica’s parents, her sister Annabelle, 21, and the driver of the other car, Craig Anthony Whitall.
Speaking to the Illawara Mercury, Elmas has detailed her daring rescue mission and called for all cars to feature first aid kits and fire extinguishers.
When she arrived on the scene, she says, she was only a couple of minutes behind Whitall’s car.
“No one was doing anything yet, so I yelled for help and asked who had fire extinguishers to put out the flames,” she said.
“I put them out and went straight over to Craig. I stayed with him while he passed.”
According to Elmas, Falkholt’s father passed away on impact, and her mother died shortly thereafter.
“I checked for pulses and knew the girls (Jessica and her sister Annabelle) were still alive. I yelled for a knife to cut them out of their seat-belts with and a lady came back with scissors.
“Someone was saying we shouldn’t move them in case of spinal injuries, but I knew we had to get them out because the car was going to explode.
“I just went into auto-pilot. I don’t know how I knew what to do, but I did it.
“We got the girls out and I went to the passenger side. The mother had passed, but I wanted to get her body out before the car exploded.
“But the flames grew and I knew had no more [fire extinguishers] to use. I said to myself, ‘I have three children, I need to leave’, so I ran from the car and it went ‘kaboom’.”
According to the Illawara Mercury, Elmas is now calling for all cars to feature mandatory first aid kits and fire extinguishers.
“To be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever get over it,” she said of the crash. “If 28 people had been killed in a massacre we’d want something to change.
“This is just one incident of many and I think these changes could save lives. Even if it allows passing motorists to put a fire out so families can bury a body.
“From this, if we can help others then I think it will help everyone who has to deal with what happened.
“I don’t expect everybody to be able to do this type or thing, or to do it, but if people have these things in their car for others to use or offer then I think it would help.”
Jessica Falkholt remains in critical condition, with doctors giving her a 50/50 chance of survival.
“The neurosurgeon spoke to the family (on Friday) and said it could take weeks or months (to find out her condition) because they do not know how much brain damage there is,” relative James Randazzo told News Corp on Sunday.
“He said her brain is like a Ferrari in that you can make everything look all right but you won’t know until you turn the ignition on whether the engine is going to start.
“She may wake up and, if she does wake up, is she going to be a different person? If we get to that point then someone is going to have to break the news to her about the rest of her family.”
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