How Courtney's courage and cool head averted highway carnage, earning her a Pride of Australia awards Child of Courage nomination

The courage and presence of mind of 12-year-old Courtney Black saved several lives when her mother blacked out at the wheel of the family ute last year.

driving

UNTIL a summer evening early last year, the only car Courtney Black had driven was at a fairground. But the 12-year-old's lightning-fast reactions and cool head on a Logan road last year averted a horror smash that would have claimed several lives, including hers and her mother's.

Courtney and mother Shelley Bond were returning from the shops to collect a takeaway when Ms Bond suffered a seizure and blacked out at the wheel of the family's powerful, V6 ute.

Unconscious, Ms Bond planted her foot to the floor, sending the car racing at 120km/h and on the wrong side of Waterford-Tamborine Rd near Logan Village in Brisbane's south.

"I looked across and could see mum was fitting," recalls Courtney, 14. "I said 'mum, mum', and when she didn't respond I clicked something was very wrong."

With traffic behind them and approaching them head-on, Courtney reached across her mother to kill the ignition, removed her seat belt and jumped in to her mother's lap, eventually steering the ute to safety on the side of the road, but only meters from a 50m drop.

"It was probably only a matter of seconds, but in the end the oncoming traffic was only about 50m away. I climbed out of mum's window and when I couldn't wake her I thought she was dead."

In the darkness, Courtney eventually managed to hail down drivers who called an ambulance. Her bravery has earned her a nomination as a Child of Courage in the 2013 Pride of Australia awards.

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Courtney, from Stockleigh south of Logan, said she had debated whether or not to join her mother on the drive to the shops, but knows if she hadn't, her mother would certainly be dead.

"If she hadn't acted so calmly and with such courage we and the people in the oncoming cars wouldn't be here to tell the story," Ms Bond said.

Mrs Bond said drivers in cars behind them estimated the ute had hit as high as 160km/h.

"And in a 90km/h zone it would have been very nasty," she said.

Courtney was so traumatised by the incident that the family had to sell the ute and buy a smaller car. Ms Bond was barred from driving for six months after the incident, while tests on why she had the seizure have proved inconclusive.

Courtney received a Logan City Council citation and is the case study when heroism is taught at her local primary school.

Nominate your unsung hero at prideofaustralia.com.au. Nominations close Tuesday, July 16.
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