Janet Dijksman’s motherly instinct led her to the scene of her daughter Courtney’s car crash
Janet Dijksman was waiting for her daughter to return home from work when an ambulance raced past her home. She followed it and it led her to a heartbreaking discovery.
SA News
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A mother’s instinct is what made Janet Dijksman get in her car and follow an ambulance racing through her small town of Springton a decade ago.
She didn’t know it then but she was driving to the devastating scene of her daughter’s death.
A passionate and hard working nurse, 23-year-old Courtney Dijksman, was driving home from night shift when her car hit into a tree.
“When I got there the road was blocked off,” Ms Dijksman, who is the chair of the Road Trauma Support Team of SA, said.
“I could see her car, then I saw her lying on the side of the road with a blanket over her.
“The ambulance officer tried to stop me, I waved her away and went over to Courtney.
“I pulled the blanket back, she didn’t have a mark on her.
“I just lay down on the road with her and cuddled her.”
The Road Trauma Support Team of South Australia hosted an event at Prospect in honour of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims which occurs on November 19.
Ms Dijksman is the chair of the SA support team, which helps support victims of road trauma and connects them with counsellors.
She joined Road Trauma Support Team for her daughter Courtney.
“I was doing it for her and with the hope that I could stop even one family from going through the hell that my family has gone through,” she said.
“My husband (Mario) and I were saying … there are people out there who don’t know it will happen to them.”
Support team committee member, senior constable first class Kylee Simpson, worked as a victim contact officer as part of the police force until 2013 and has been part of the support team since 2009.
“Some of the people on the committee I actually delivered their loved ones death message,” she said.
“All of them have suffered the ultimate loss of a loved one on SA roads.
“I truly believe these lovely people have given me a different perspective on life.”
Senior Constable Simpson said “being on the roads is a privilege not a right”.
“Any number is not acceptable but 101 is heart breaking, that is 101 family, friends, communities, and workplaces hurting,” she said.
“This hurt is avoidable and has a ripple effect.”
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