Daughter saves mother in car

Press, 31 May 1982, Page 1

Daughter saves mother in car

PA Auckland Tara. Winters, aged 11, of Browns Bay, Auckland, yesterday shrugged off the title of heroine. Although she had possibly saved her .own life, as well as her mother’s and a young school friend’s, by stopping a runaway car, Tara did not view it as a “big deal.” “There was not much else I could do,” she said. The adventure began about

4.30 p.m. on Saturday when Mrs Penny Winters bundled Tara and her friend into the back of her 1958 Morris Oxford. The three were on their way to pick up another of the Winters’ children. While travelling down a steep, winding section of Beach Road, Mrs Winters blacked out. “Mum pulled, hard on the wheel and slumped down in the seat looking at me,” Tara said. “I thought she was

playing a joke but we went on to the curb and all i could see were trees and a power pole so I grabbed the wheel.” Tara was in the back seat of the car and could not reach the hand-brake so she tried to steer the car down the hill. “It was a curly road and I had to try to drive down it,” she said. “We were screaming out for help all the time and the car was gathering speed. I tried to bang the car into the curb to stop it and when a police car

passed us, we yelled and waved out the window. The car turned round with its lights flashing but before it reached us, a runner caught up with us, opened the door and put his foot on the brake.” Mrs Winters, who was admitted to hospital and released later on Saturday evening, said she did not remember blacking out. However, she did recall coming to in the ambulance.

“When I think of what could have happened if Tara had not steered us safely down the hill, I shudder,” she said. Mr Peter Winters said he believed his daughter deserved a badge for bravery. The road where the incident took place was steep and a serious accident had been averted only because of her quick thinking. “W’e are very proud of her,” he said, “if she had not taken over, all three of them could have had serious injuries.”