Angela Brown from New South Wales, Australia, has urged parents to use
rear-facing restraints when placing children in a vehicle following an
accident. The mother said she was involved in a head-on collision with a
tree while driving through a rural area of New South Wales, with both
her young daughters. One daughter, who was placed in the car facing
forward, suffered severe spinal injuries in the crash after an air
conditioning vent had broken and hit her in the head. In a
Facebook post on Tuesday, May 23, Mrs Brown said her experience in a
serious car accident presented her with “hard evidence” that promotes
the safety of rear-facing restraints.
“Don’t make the same mistake as I did. It could cost you your babies life” she warned.
See her full post below:
“PROOF REAR FACING FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE IS IMPORTANT!!
I write this sitting next to my nearly 2 year old (she is two tomorrow)
in her hospital bed finally asleep after yet another rough day. And my
almost one year old asleep in her pram at Westmead Children’s
hospital.
On the 26th February my happy normal world shattered and I woke up to my
new nightmare life. Travelling home from a dentist appointment in the
middle of the day in Rural NSW our SUV slammed into a tree head on at
100kms p/hr. The impact caused our car to flip forward over its bonnet
and onto its roof. At the same time the large tree snapped and landed on
top of the car trapping us in it.
When I came to we were upside down in our car Miss 1 and Miss 2 were
screaming. We turned to see miss 2 had quite a large laceration on her
forehead. She was forward facing at the time of the crash. The aircon
control vent above had flown off and hit her in the head. Miss 1 was
rearward facing with no visible injuries.
Me and Miss 2 were picked up by Careflight from the crash sight and
flown to Westmead. Where our nightmare just got worse. They had
discovered she had broken her c2 c3 and tore all her ligaments in her
c1. She was one of the youngest to be fitted with a Halo Brace the
doctor told us that most children with her injury don’t normally make
it.
Miss 1 and her dad went via ambulance to another hospital. Miss 1 had no
injuries just a small bruise on her shoulder. So as you can see two
children in the same car crash restrained properly one with life
threatening injuries and the other with non.
I was always unsure about when turning my babies around but after our
crash and the hard evidence we are presented with I will forever
rearward face my babies as long as I possibly can. Don’t make the same
mistake as I did. It could cost you your babies life. So far we have
been treating her injury for 3mths with no idea of when she will be
fully recovered”
More photos below…