These are the words of Lisa Elmas, the Narrawallee woman who was one of the first people on the scene of the Boxing Day car crash which claimed the lives of four people and left another woman in intensive care. 

Now, Lisa has called on the NSW Government to make first aid kits and fire extinguishers mandatory at registration for vehicles statewide – items she believes would have made a difference on that fateful day. 

The 44-year-old was only minutes behind Craig Whitall’s Toyota Prado as she drove south toward her home on the morning of December 26.

When she rounded the Princes Highway at Mondayong she encountered the horrific accident involving Mr Whitall and the Falkholt family. 

The Ulladulla man had veered onto the wrong side of the Princes Highway and collided with a car carrying the family of four from Ryde. 

Lisa pulled her car to the side of the road, stopped traffic and went into action while others watched on in shock. Some, Lisa said, stood back and videoed the unfolding horror. 

“I could see the four-wheeled-drive had a gas bottle underneath and that flames were starting,” she said. 

“No one was doing anything yet so I yelled for help and asked who had fire extinguishers to put out the flames. 

“I put out them out and went straight over to Craig. I stayed with him while he passed.” 

Lisa, who has no formal first-aid training, relied on skills learnt in her time with the Army Reserves and the haphazard medical supplies from passing cars to assist while emergency services made their way through queues of traffic. 

She rallied bystanders to help, including an off duty paramedic and his wife visiting from Queensland along with a graduate doctor, to coordinate the civilian rescue. 

“The father died on impact and the mother passed soon after,” she said. 

“I checked for pulses and knew the girls were still alive. I yelled for a knife to cut them out of their seat-belts with and a lady came back with scissors.

“Someone was saying we shouldn’t move them in case of spinal injuries, but I knew we had to get them out because the car was going to explode.” 

Lisa noticed flames reignite under the vehicles and put her life in danger to drag the Falkholt sisters Annabelle, 21, and Jessica, 28, from the wreckage – an action paramedics say gave the sisters a chance at survival.

Sadly, Annabelle’s life-support was turned off on December 29 and she passed away from injuries sustained in the crash at Liverpool Hospital. Jessica remains in an induced coma in a critical condition at St George Hospital.  

“I just went into auto-pilot. I don’t know how I knew what to do, but I did it,” Lisa said. 

“We got the girls out and I went to the passenger side. The mother had passed, but I wanted to get her body out before the car exploded.

“But the flames grew and I knew had no more [fire extinguishers] to use. 

“I said to myself, ‘I have three children, I need to leave’, so I ran from the car and it went ‘kaboom’.”

Recounting the tragic event, the disability worker sits in her friend’s backyard. She is visibly distressed.

“This will take me quite sometime to come to terms with,” she said. 

“I got up where the paramedics were and I couldn’t breathe. I was hyperventilating, walking round and round in circles. 

“To be honest, I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.”

Lisa said that following the accident she understands people will be angry and looking for someone to blame, however, wants people to channel their emotions into positive change. 

“I want first aid kits and fire extinguishers to be made mandatory at registration for all NSW vehicles,” she said. 

“If there were more fire extinguishers on the scene we might have been able to control it better. 

“I don't want the community to think I am speaking out for any other reason then closure and to make change.”

During 2017 392 people died on the state’s roads, 28 over the Christmas period.

“If 28 people had been killed in a massacre we’d want something to change,” she said. 

“This is just one incident of many and I think these changes could save lives. Even if it allows passing motorists to put a fire out so families can bury a body. 

“From this, if we can help others then I think it will help everyone who has to deal with what happened.

“I don’t expect everybody to be able to do this type or thing, or to do it, but if people have these things in their car for others to use or offer then I think it would help.” 

Click here to sign Lisa’s petition to NSW Transport Minister Melissa Pavey.