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For almost an hour after hearing her son had been involved in a car accident Wanda Rudsits feared he was dead.
The Tauranga woman spent the time "pacing the house" and called her mother in between frantic phonecalls to police and staff at Waikato Hospital, desperately trying to find out what had happened.
"That was the twilight zone right there," she said.
"It's like a parent's worst nightmare, isn't it? You don't know if he's alive or dead."
It was 45 minutes before she learned her son Nigel Fluharty, 18, was alive but very badly injured after an out of control car - allegedly driven by a drunk man - careened onto the driveway where he was watching cars go by during the annual Beach Hop classic car event in Whangamata.
Ms Rudsits said she heard from witnesses that her son was flung into the air as far as 20m, landing on top of the car before it was imbedded in a garage.
Fifteen-year-old Mary-Beth Wood, also from Tauranga, suffered compound fractures to her lower left leg in the crash.
A third person, who was in the car, suffered minor injuries.
Like Nigel, Mary-Beth remained in Waikato Hospital last night in a stable condition after four hours of surgery on Saturday. Nigel also had a four-hour operation yesterday. Both teenagers require further surgery.
Nigel's injuries include a broken leg and ankle. He has two cracks in his pelvis and a split spleen.
His left arm has severed tendons... He is left-handed and it is not yet clear whether he will regain its use.
Mrs Rudsits said she had initially told Nigel he could not go away with his friends for the night, because she had "a bad feeling" about it.
"I actually said to him `what say you break your leg'?"
Mrs Rudsits said she was more fearful of a crash in transit to the township but, after some negotiating on Saturday, she allowed Nigel to drive her "little spineless Mitsubishi" so he could get himself there.
It made it even more unbelievable that the group wasn't driving when they became caught up in the chaos, she said.
Mrs Rudsits said she and Nigel moved to Tauranga from San Francisco three years ago for a safer lifestyle.
However, she had found some down sides to New Zealand _ particularly the youth drinking culture _ which contrasted heavily to the United States, where the drinking age is 21.
"I feel like it's just a war zone out there. I feel like every week, every weekend, you see gory photos of smashed up kids. It makes me very angry.
"The combination of a low driving age and a low drinking age is lethal, just lethal.
"I don't feel like there's punishment. The laws aren't strong enough."
Nigel was meant to return to San Francisco with his mother in two weeks, where he was to begin an internship towards lighting and sound work in theatre.
That trip is now on hold as Nigel faces months of rehabilitation.
Speaking from her hospital bed yesterday, Mary-Beth, a student at Otumoetai College, she said thought the alleged drink-driver was just "kidding and showing off".
"When we saw he had lost control, we never thought he would come near us." She said someone had yelled run, but she had time to flee only 2m before she was hit and flung to the ground.
A 22-year-old Mount Maunganui man is to appear in the Waihi District Court tomorrow charged with drink-driving, driving under the influence causing injury and reckless driving.
Police allege the man had a breath alcohol reading of 620mcg per litre of breath. The legal limit is 400mcg.
Ms Rudsits said she had heard reports that the man driving the car had been racing another car and that he tried to run away from the scene.
She intends on being in court when man accused of causing the crash appears tomorrow.
