“NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”, I cry. AMANDAAAAAA!!!!!
We were between the towns Winchester and Hinds when It all went wrong.
It started on a lovely morning on state highway 1 and the animals were all running and frolicking in the lush green grass. A ravine dropped to the left-hand side of the highway, it was so deep, it looked like the gateway to hell. The drive from Dunedin to Christchurch was quite the road trip, especially for Amanda, my 3-year-old daughter. Amanda always hated road trips but she always liked the destination.
We were just casually driving when all of a sudden a wallaby jumped in the middle of the road! My first reaction was to turn right but I accidentally put my car in reverse and by the time I remembered that there was a ravine there, half the car was hanging off the edge of the gaping hole. I slowly unbuckled my seatbelt because the slightest weight shift could make the whole car fall. I tried to reach for my phone and call 111, but as I did so, I felt the car slowly shifting its weight.
“Hello?” I whimper into the phone.
“Hi mam, my name is Keisha, could you please explain your situation to me?” replied the emergency responder on the phone.
“Um, my car is hanging off the side of a ravine, and I’m in my car with my 3-year-old daughter.” I shakenly said.
“Could you please tell me your location mam?” she asked.
“I’m on state highway 1 in between Winchester and Hinds,” I told her.
“I’ll tell the fire department to find you and get you out of your situation, in the meantime please keep calm and don’t move,” she demanded.
“Ok,” I responded.
After an hour, I heard sirens and saw flashing red lights. The fire trucks parked just in front of the car. A man hoped out of the fire truck and approached me.
“Hello mam.” he calmly said
“Afternoon,” I replied
“Do you have any unlucky passengers with you today?” He asked
“My 3-year-old daughter is in the back with me, get my daughter out first,” I told him.
“Okay mam, we’ll get you out at the same time,” he said
They managed to get me out first but then I realized the physics of weight. I was the anchor, the one that stopped the car from falling into the ravine. Then all of a sudden the car tilts back and drops into the great ravine, with the fireman that was saving my daughter and Amanda.
“This is all my fault.” I sobbed
I didn’t mean to kill her.