Taina Keelan is presented with the bravery award by Mayor of Horowhenua Bernie Wanden.
Cath Harris said all of a sudden a car was coming straight towards her.
After the impact she knew straight away she was trapped. She couldn’t free her legs and the car door was warped shut.
She screamed at passengers Giovanni Harris and Kyson Howse to wake up. There was nil response.
“I felt myself drifting, but I knew I had to stay awake,” she said.
She willed every passing car to stop. None did. By this time the other car had caught fire, just metres away.
Taina Keelan, 23, was driving back home barefoot from the beach after dropping off a mate. He immediately stopped.
He tried and tried to free Harris’ door, but couldn’t.
“I saw the fear in her eyes and just got angry,” he said.
With his bare hands he bent a pillar to wrench open and rip away a car door to get to a trapped Harris, sliding back her car seat and freeing her legs.
“She was more worried about the boys than herself,” he said.
He came back for Giovanni, then Kyson, who were unconscious. He sat with them awhile, gave a statement to police and drove home.
Harris said Keelan “appeared out of nowhere”.
“You couldn’t imagine my relief when someone stopped because no one was stopping. I was hurt and in shock and Giovanni and Kyson weren’t answering. My leg was trapped. I could see the flames. I was screaming,” she said.
All three spent time in hospital after the crash. Howse fared worst with a broken collarbone, fractured sternum and severe concussion.
Chief fire officer Shaun Sayer was among the first emergency responders to the scene, near the Whirokino Bridge south of Foxton. He said members of the public had also stopped to help the driver of the other vehicle.
Sayer said if it wasn’t for Keelan’s actions that afternoon of January 21 this year, “things could’ve turned out entirely different”.
“The vehicle was only two or three metres away. It could’ve easily caught fire.”
Keelan, who lives in Palmerston North, said he didn’t think too much about it at the time - he was just focused on getting them out of the car. He was tracked down weeks later - his friends responded to calls for his identity - enabling Harris, Giovanni and Kyson to thank him.
They all attended a ceremony at Horowhenua District Council this week to see Keelan receive a Bronze Medal from the Royal Humane Society of New Zealand for his courage, presented by Horowhenua mayor Bernie Wanden.
Royal Humane Society of New Zealand was established in 1898 to honour peacetime acts of bravery, to recognise civilians who risk their lives to save others. Wanden said it was an honour to present Keelan with the award on behalf of the society and Her Excellency the Governor-General of New Zealand.
He described Keelan as a humble and brave young man.
“The bronze medal being awarded this afternoon represents bravery displayed in rescuing others whose lives are in danger, and is a demonstration of the greatest of human qualities – putting one’s life in danger to save another,” he said.
“Keelan without thoughts for his own safety, went and above and beyond the actions of others, it was his determination and strength that allowed access to the vehicle, returning to pull all three attendants out even though a vehicle very nearby was fully ablaze.”
Wanden quoted author C.S. Lewis: “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point”.
He also quoted Scottish poet Joanna Baillie:
“The brave man is not he who feels no fear,
For that were stupid and irrational;
But he, whose noble soul its fears subdues,
And bravely dares the danger nature shrinks from.”
- Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ on Air.
A pair of Foxton volunteers have been doing some interesting work.