TOP STORY: Girl, 16, paralysed in tragic accident

By David Dunham
Lying right now in a Tauranga Hospital bed is a 16-year-old girl who does not know if she will ever be able to walk again.
While her Katikati College friends enjoy the summer break, she is coming to terms with the prospect of being in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
At the request of her distraught parents we have not named the girl but can publish the traumatic details of a road crash she was involved in earlier this month in the hope it might not happen to others.
Her father says all his thoughts are with his daughter right now but as hard as he tries he says it is impossible not to look back at the events that led to the crash and ask "what if ?".
What if he had told her she could not stay at a friend's house that night?
What if she had not got into the car? What if her friend's dad had said she could not go out?
And what if she had been wearing a three-point seat belt and not a lapbelt?
"If only I would have said 'no' she could not stay at her friend's and told her to come home," he said.
Every parent's nightmare came true for this father when about 11.30pm on Saturday, January 13, the car his daughter was travelling in along Hot Springs Rd in Katikati careered off the road, just before Katikati Cemetery.
It went about 1m up an embankment and crashed into trees.
The driver of the 10-year-old 4-wheel drive Toyota Hilux Surf, and a male and female passenger - who spent about one week in hospital with fractures and severe bruising - were able to walk away from the crumpled vehicle but their friend could not.
She could not move because her spine had been broken and her bowel had been ruptured.
A nearby resident who heard the noise of the impact came rushing to the scene and went into the back of the car to comfort the girl until St John Ambulance arrived.
Brandon Jones, a volunteer with the Katikati St John Ambulance, said when he entered the crash area the girl was lying on her back in the car, stretched out with her head in the far left hand back seat while her feet were down by the driver's side door.
"She was in a good neutral position. It took us 40 minutes to extract her from the car. She was in quite a bit of pain and understandably concerned about how she was going to come out of it," Mr Jones said.
"It's very upsetting to hear she has been paralysed and our thoughts are with her and her family."
As the girl lay, unable to move, Lance Reyland of the Katikati Fire Service and his colleagues worked to help get her out from the vehicle by cutting away part of the front car seat.
Once that was done, she was put on a flat bed, carried to an ambulance and taken to Tauranga Hospital where the extent of her injuries were confirmed and she underwent spinal surgery.
The surgery was successful but her spinal chord was in a "mess", her father said.
"The surgeon who operated on her spine and fixed it into place so she can sit up would not give us much hope. I think their policy is not to say too much.
"There's always a little bit of improvement and she said she sometimes feels a little bit of feeling in her upper leg.
"Once her tummy is in order, hopefully in a couple of weeks or so, she will go to the spinal unit in Auckland."
What happened before the crash will sound familiar to parents of teenagers across the country.
The daughter was at work at a local superette when shortly before she finished at 9pm she called her dad and asked if she could stay at the house of a friend who she worked with.
The father agreed on the understanding she would stay there and not go out.
However, about 10pm, some local boys came to her friend's house and asked if the girls wanted to go for a ride with them in a car. Her friend's father consented and the four teenagers left.
The details of what happened between this point and the crash have yet to be revealed but since the crash the father has learned his daughter was in the back seat and was wearing a lapbelt.
Had she been wearing a three-point seatbelt then she would not have been paralysed and her bowel would not have been ruptured, the father believes.
He said he wished the two-point lapbelts - common in older vehicles in the centre of the back seat - would be banned.
"If my daughter had been wearing a normal seatbelt she would probably not be in the condition she is in now," he said.
The girl's boyfriend - who was not in the car - supported this view.
"I have no doubt she is paralysed because she was wearing a lapbelt. I wish she was wearing a normal seatbelt," he said.
The safety of lapbelts came under intense scrutiny in February last year when Huntly coroner Bob McDermott said they should be banned due to the "horrendous injuries" they caused to crash victims.
Mr McDermott spoke out after a 77-year-old woman died in a crash on SH1. The woman was wearing a lapbelt which ruptured her internal organs on impact.
And Senior Sergeant Ian Campion, the Western Bay's top traffic officer, said there was anecdotal evidence that people were more likely to be injured wearing a lapbelt rather than a diagonal belt.
Land Transport NZ says wearing any seatbelt is safer than wearing no seatbelt at all but admits there are dangers associated with lapbelts.
People are advised to choose a lap-and-diagonal seatbelt but if using just a lapbelt they should be worn low across the bone of the pelvis and tightened to fit the wearer, LTNZ recommends.
The girl's father said he was not angry at his daughter's friend's dad for letting them go out that night, saying he did not want to "waste his feelings".
However, he said he still thought about what could have been.
"All it would have taken is a 'no' from the dad. All it would have taken is more responsibility from the parent.
"He (the father) gave the okay and my feeling is that they should not have let them out. I would have asked if the driver was capable of driving at night."
"The whole thing is very painful and sad."
Senior Constable John Fitzgerald of Katikati police said a 17-year-old male had been charged with careless driving and with excess breath alcohol following the crash.
The youth is alleged to have had 400 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath - nearly three times the legal limit of 150 micrograms for someone aged under 20.
Mr Fitzgerald said he would be summoned to appear in Tauranga District Court to face the charges.
Despite the charges, the paralysed girl's father said he had not thought about the driver.
"My thoughts need to be with my daughter," he said.
At the superette where the girl had worked for 12 months before the crash, customers have been "horrified" by her injuries. "She is very well liked ... we think a lot of her," the owner said.
The superette owner had been to visit her in hospital and had been astounded by her "great" attitude to coping with her situation.
This reaction has touched her father and given him hope his daughter will be able to face the challenges that lie ahead.
The fact she has spoken about becoming a social worker and using a wheelchair speaks volumes for her courage.
"She is really strong ... she wants to work. She said we all have to come to terms with it.
"I am just so glad she is alive and she is in good spirits and is very positive. I am happy for that," he said.
* Should lapbelts be banned? Post your thoughts to The Editor,Bay of Plenty Times, Private Bag 12002, Tauranga, email editor@bopp.co.nz, or text 021 439 968.