By Jamie Freestone
A 44-year-old Perth mother-of-three, an innocent driver who was caught up in a horror crash which took the lives of three young men, has revealed the toll being involved has had on her life.
Ika Lauchlan, an aged care nurse, was driving home along Sixty Eight Road in Baldivis when she was hit.
Father-of-two Kody Bell, 24, his younger brother William, 21, and 24-year-old father-of-two Jaziah Thomas died at the scene, their car engine was flung 80 metres down the road.
Lauchlan was pulled from the wreckage and was one of two survivors. Tyler Rowe, 21, was the only passenger in the second car to make it out alive.
Lauchlan said she was angry but grateful to be alive.Credit: Nine News Perth
“When I saw this white car coming right at me at that kind of speed, I’m thinking the worst,” Lauchlan told Nine News Perth.
“I saw them laughing and I just screamed and I said ‘You are going to hit me’, and I was thinking how the hell are you still laughing ... we are going to hit.
“I ended up like a pinball machine, being thrown around left and right inside my car.”
Lauchlan suffered from torn ligaments to her neck and spine and a broken foot, which still requires surgery, but was cushioned by airbags which prevented more serious injuries.
Lauchlan said she saw the bonnet of her car begin to smoke and phoned her husband, who rushed to her side. Their family home was not far from the scene of the crash.
She also thanked first responders who came to the rescue, and said she wanted to find one lady who had cradled her head and kept her conscious.
Lauchlan was taken to hospital after the crash.Credit: Nine News Perth
“When you’re in my line of work you help people, but this time I’m the one who needed help and they were there for me, so I am very, very grateful for them,” she said.
But Lauchlan also said she was angry.
“I didn’t ask for this. I know things happen, but look at me now,” she said, pointing to a neck brace she needed to wear as she healed.
Lauchlan has also already had to go past the scene of the crash twice, once on the way home from hospital, and said she couldn’t breathe anytime she went near it.
With medical bills piling up, her family has started a GoFundMe page, which has already accumulated thousands in donations.
“She is a nurse who won’t be able to work for three months or more,” her aunt Kathleen Lauchlan wrote on the page.
“She has three beautiful children and her hubby is a long-distance truck driver. He has to lose this week’s work so no pay, but the bills still come in. Please help any amount will help. Thank you for caring.”
The emotional trauma will likely take longer to heal.
Nine News Perth