Empire Bay: Neighbour’s desperate pleas to help woman involved in fatal crash

A neighbour desperately tried to get authorities to help a woman in the grips of a mental health episode hours before she got behind the wheel and was involved in a fatal crash.

Floral tributes on Empire Bay Rd, Empire Bay, where a woman, aged in her 20s, was killed on Friday, September 13, 2024, and another woman, aged in her 40s, was critically injured. Picture: NewsLocal

A neighbour claims she repeatedly called police and paramedics about a woman, aged in her 40s, who was suffering a mental health episode hours before she became involved in fatal traffic accident.

The neighbour questioned whether the crash on Friday, September 13, at Empire Bay, could have been avoided after she called police and NSW Ambulance from as early as 7.30am that morning.

She said her neighbour had a long history of mental health issues.

She said the woman’s ex-husband rang her at 6.30am asking her to go next door and check on his ex-wife.

The neighbour said she went around there and the woman was acting strangely and talking incoherently.

Floral tributes and cards left on a steel railing in memory of a woman, aged in her 20s, who died on September 13 in a two-car crash on Empire Bay Rd, Empire Bay. Picture: NewsLocal

The neighbour said she reported her concerns to police and ambulance and later that morning flagged police down leaving the woman’s driveway.

She said the officers told her the woman wasn’t home.

Pictures left at the scene in memory of “Tiarne”.

Later that afternoon the neighbour went next door again and spoke to the woman.

She said she contacted police and ambulance, as well as a mental health service to come out and do a “concern for welfare check”.

“I could see her running back and forth from the house to a big shed,” the neighbour said.

Shortly after 6pm the neighbour said she saw an ambulance and paramedics at the end of the woman’s driveway.

The neighbour felt relieved when she saw paramedics attending the woman’s house next door but they never managed to speak to her. File picture: Thomas Lisson

A NSW Ambulance spokesman confirmed paramedics attended the house but had “no patient contact”.

He said NSW Ambulance couldn’t comment further because the incident was now under police investigation.

Meanwhile the neighbour said when she saw the paramedics she thought “thank God, she’s going to get the help she needs”.

“About 9pm (the woman’s ex-husband) rings me and thanked me for everything, for going over there and checking in on her during the day. I had been dealing with it since 6.30am, I was just relieved,” she said.

“About half an hour later he rings back and says [she’s] been involved in an accident so my husband goes on Facebook and we see there’s been a fatality.”

Emergency services were called to Empire Bay Rd about 8.30pm to find the woman trapped in her car severely injured.

She was flown to Royal North Shore in a critical condition with multiple broken bones and internal injuries.

A young P-plater who was the next motorist to come across the crash stopped and tried to assist. He told the neighbour it didn’t look like the woman was wearing a seatbelt at the time.

Meanwhile the female driver of the other car was found deceased.

That driver, aged in her 20s, has since been identified in cards and floral tributes left at the scene as a loving wife named “Tiarne”.

“I’m just very, very angry,” the neighbour said.

NSW Police has been contacted for a response.