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Supplied / Stuff
Sarah Kowalewski managed to stop a speeding van in which she was a passenger after the driver lost consciousness.
Returning home from a funeral, Sarah Kowalewski saved two lives – hers and the driver’s after he fell unconscious at the wheel.
A few miles north of Waitara, on the road from New Plymouth to Hamilton on Saturday, the man suddenly passed out, his foot hitting the accelerator of the truck as he lost consciousness.
Kowalewski heard the roar of the engine as they accelerated and turned into the opposite lane of State Highway 3.
“I was yelling at him to stop, to put on the brakes, but he was completely unconscious,” the 23-year-old said.
“We were on the other side of the center line. I knew if I didn’t get him out of the way, we were both going to die. “
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He hurried across to the driver’s side.
“I had to remove my seat belt to get to the brake. If a car had hit us, it would have been … it was pretty dangerous, actually I did. “
Gripping the steering wheel, he steered the truck to the left side of the road and pushed the gear stick up.
“I was trying to put it in neutral. I don’t know if it was neutral, but we just got to the bank and I jumped out of the truck and waved a car to help me, ”he said.
A passerby stopped and called for an ambulance, then slowed the passing traffic.
The driver was treated at the scene before being taken to the hospital.
“I was in a state of shock. I was crying about what had happened,” Kowalewski said.
She believes that God answered the prayers of her parents, Barry and Lina Kowalewski, that morning for a safe journey.
“No car turned the corner the wrong way as we passed the center line, and I didn’t even look in the rearview mirror. I just stopped. If a car had been there, it would have hit us.
“The fact that I was there was pretty random. Some people might call it a coincidence. I say it is a divine appointment, I was even there in the first place.
Kowalewski, a teacher at Hauraki Plains College in Ngatea, had only met the driver, who was a friend of a friend, that morning.
She had been home in Taranaki for a funeral, which she also attended.
“We were just driving, everything was normal, we were just talking, then he said quietly, ‘I don’t feel very well, huh.’ As soon as he said his head was tilted back, his eyes just rolled, he was completely unconscious. “
After the man was taken to the hospital, Kowalewski returned to her parents’ home in Stratford for the remainder of the day, and family members took her back to Hamilton on Sunday.
The ride home had been an anxious one, he said.
“The whole trip there, I was just looking to see where it was neutral, to see where the parking brake was.
“It’s not something you normally have to be scared of, but things I’ll be aware of now.”
The man had regained consciousness before the ambulance left, he said.
“My brother talked to him and says he doesn’t remember anything about what happened.”
He had been discharged from the hospital and in the meantime was forbidden to drive.
His mother, Lina Kowalewski, said she was in “absolute shock” when she learned of the accident.
“I thought of all the things that could have happened. She believes that God saved her life. “
