Teenage amputee facing slow recovery

The teenage girl who lost her leg to an out-of-control street racer is still being heavily sedated, but may leave her hospital bed this week.

"She might be able to get into a wheelchair sometime this week, but we're not sure," stepfather Al MacArthur told the Herald yesterday, from the family's Beach Haven home.

Mr MacArthur had just returned from visiting 17-year-old Amy Duncan at North Shore Hospital with wife Julie Duncan, and said the pair would return in the morning.

He had no idea whether Amy would be fitted with a prosthetic limb and said the family was just taking things day by day.

"It's a long, slow recovery," Mr MacArthur said.

Amy was out with friends on an informal farewell night last Thursday - one week before she was due to join the Navy as a communications specialist - when she was struck by a street-racing car on Manuka Rd. It is understood the driver was within her wider social circle. Friends rushed to her aid and made multiple calls to emergency services.

Yesterday Mr MacArthur thanked the teenagers for possibly saving her life.

"All I can say is a big thank you to her friends who were at the scene, who I suppose kept her alive until the ambulance got there."

He said it was a "tragic, tragic accident" that would impact hugely on the teenagers involved. However Mr MacArthur held little hope of it changing teenage driving on a wider scale.

"They will probably still have the attitude of 'it won't happen to us'. What I believe will happen is the 'let's crush the boy-racer cars attitude' will spark up again."

Police say it could be a month before any charges are laid in relation to the crash.

The Serious Crash Unit took over the investigation on Sunday, but Sergeant Stu Kearns said they would not rush proceedings as it was not a "whodunnit" case.