Terrible Silence Broken By Tears
Newcastle Herald
Thursday January 15, 2009
NAKIAH Holz is being called a miracle toddler after escaping almost unscathed when her pram was hit by an out-of-control car in Kurri Kurri.
The impact trapped the 17-month-old in her pram when it became wedged under the station wagon.A bruise to the right side of her head is the only evidence of the incident in which the vehicle mounted a kerb and crashed into Nakiah and her mother, Nicole Fox, about 7.30pm on Tuesday.After being thrown onto the bonnet, Ms Fox, 31, initially kept hold of the pram before losing her grip as the car careered into the front fence of Kurri Kurri police station on Lang Street.The impact propelled the car into the air before it landed on the pram, with Nakiah still strapped in, wedging it between the car and the steel fence.Mark Holz and a friend frantically lifted the car off the pram."It was a motionless body. I thought she was gone," Mr Holz said yesterday."But when I heard her crying it was the biggest sigh of relief, the best thing I have ever heard."Ms Fox added it was "the only time we have liked hearing her cry".The chain of events began with a female P-plater, aged 17, negotiating the roundabout at the intersection of Victoria Street and Lang Street.The circumstances of how the car came to be out of control are still under police investigation.But what is known is that the family of three only on their third walk together as part of a fitness kick were on the footpath outside the police station when they saw the car coming towards them.Nakiah's parents instinctively jumped and Ms Fox held onto the pram as she leapt onto the bonnet to cushion the impact."I could just see it coming and the only thing I could do was jump on the bonnet, and I still had hold of the pram," Ms Fox said.The car crashed through a garden and into the family, carrying them several metres before it hit the steel fence, throwing Ms Fox off as she lost her grip on the pram.Nakiah was trapped for up to five minutes in the pram under the car before Mr Holz and Michael Carr lifted it to free her. Mr Holz, a former firefighter, said he was aware the car was running and the engine was hot and "just prayed that nothing was ruptured"."You just felt helpless, that you can't do anything to help your child," Ms Fox said."It felt like a lifetime before we could get her free from under the car."Ms Fox and her daughter were taken to Maitland Hospital before the toddler was transferred to John Hunter Hospital after again losing consciousness.But concerns of brain swelling and long-term damage were ruled out by yesterday morning, and Nakiah was running around John Hunter Children's Hospital smiling.The couple, emotional and relieved, thanked the "20-odd" people who stopped to help as well as the staff at Maitland and John Hunter children's hospitals.Investigations into the incident are continuing.
© 2009 Newcastle Herald
