‘It cost us everything’: Maxwell family torn apart by road trauma tragedy

Odetta Maxwell, 25, will never meet her sister’s new child – all because of one moment on our roads. Here, her family pleads for change.

Isobel Vlahiotis lives with the knowledge that “nightmares can come true” after her sister was killed in a car crash last year.

Currently 13 weeks pregnant, Isobel’s sister Odetta Maxwell, a promising musician and avid traveller, will never meet her second child.

“I wish people could see that the worst-case scenario is real and it can happen to you,” the 25-year-old told The Advertiser.

“If my sister had realised that maybe she’d be alive and she’d be able to meet my children and be a part of my life and our whole world wouldn’t have been broken apart.

“If only she’d been paying attention to the road.”

Odetta Maxwell, a 25-year-old Port Wakefield woman tragically died after a single car crash on Port Wakefield Highway. Picture: Supplied by family

Odetta with younger sister Isobel Vlahiotis. Picture: Supplied by family

Odetta Maxwell driving down Port Wakefield Highway on January 31, aged 25, when she was involved in a single vehicle crash. Major Crash declared the cause “distraction”.

What has made Odetta’s death that much more unbearable for Isobel was the fact the sister’s parents lived with traumatic brain injuries from their own separate crashes.

“Odetta and I didn’t get our licences straight away,” Isobel said.

“We both delayed it for a long time because we were wary … so the fact she killed herself on the road, it is so shocking, it’s hard to believe.”

The Maxwell family group chat moments before they discovered their sister Odetta Maxwell was involved in a car crash. Picture: Supplied

When they discovered it was Odetta in the crash. Picture: Supplied

Their mother, Rachael Maxwell, 54, was hit by a car when she was eight years old, leaving her with lifelong disabilities.

“Her heart stopped seven times — they revived her — she had a really small chance of survival,” Isobel, who lives in St Clair said.

“She had brain surgery, she had her whole body worked on and she was in a really bad way and the fact she came back from that.”

Isobel said that her mum believed, because she made it through her crash, that Odetta would also.

But, after being in an induced coma for a few days, the 25-year-old succumbed to her injuries on February 2.

“She’s trying really hard but she’ll never be the same,” Isobel said.

For Kym Maxwell, her father, his health declined so rapidly following Odetta’s death he required permanent care.

Odetta Maxwell with sister Isobel Vlahiotis and parents Kym and Rachael Maxwell. Picture: Supplied

Isobel said her sister’s death was “senseless”.

“All of this happened because she got a burger from the servo and decided to open it,” she said.

“She was putting it on the seat next to her and because she was going so fast, she veered into the gravel … she skidded out, lost control and then bled to death on the side of the road.

“She made a split decision to undo her burger while she was driving and it cost her her life.

“It cost my dad the rest of his life — he immediately went downhill after she died.

“It cost my mum her family, it cost my children the opportunity to ever meet her, their aunty … it cost us everything.”

Odetta’s family has a simple message for South Australians — be attentive on the roads.

“I don’t want my sister to have died for absolutely nothing,” Isobel said.

“I want people, when they get behind the wheel, to think about her and not let themselves get in to the same situation she did.

“I want people to think about their families, I want people to look at us and say ‘wow it must be really hard, living without the person that you love the most for the rest of your life, I don’t want my family to go through that’.

Originally published as ‘It cost us everything’: Maxwell family torn apart by road trauma tragedy