Ashleigh Romanes: Mother’s crash horror turns to joy with birth of baby Olli
A mother has recounted the moment her family was involved in a fatal collision.
Northern Territory
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Had Western Australian traveller Ashleigh Romanes, 33, been wearing a normal seatbelt, her little boy Olli, who was growing inside of her, would have never seen the light of day.
She and her husband Robbie sold everything they owned in Mandurah in December 2022, purchased a truck and a caravan and set off on their trip of a lifetime, slowly circumnavigating Australia, working odd jobs at stops on the way, until their children reached school age.
Earlier this year, with Olli imminent – he was due on March 21 – the family of four left Kununurra bound for Darwin, where they would have access to a tertiary hospital and be joined by Ms Romanes’ parents.
However, their plan for a calm, orderly birth at the hospital went awry in tragic circumstances on March 10.
The family group – the Romanes’ and the boys’ grandparents – were idling at the intersection of Lambrick Ave and the Stuart Highway at Palmerston when a utility vehicle being driven by a 77-year-old slammed into the rear of their Isuzu flatbed truck at “100km/h without braking”.
“We didn’t know what had happened. We were sitting at the traffic lights doing nothing, waiting for them to turn green,” Ms Romanes said.
“I was in the middle of the front, so I had a lap belt instead of normal seatbelt.
“That was the only thing that saved baby Olli.
“With a normal belt, he would have died.
“I was flung out of the seatbelt and struck the windscreen, but it saved the baby, which was the best thing ever.
“Everyone else got lots of whiplash. The boys’ car seats got smashed in half, they both had really bad concussion and whiplash.
“They went into shock.”
Ms Romanes, the two boys and her mother were transported straight to hospital, where they were joined later by Robbie and her father.
Medical checks revealed Ms Romanes had broken her coccyx and had other spinal complications.
She then went into pre-labour, but Ms Romanes had not yet been cleared for discharge from the trauma centre, so she had to “hold out”.
Once in the maternity suite, her labour ceased, but it was not long before Olli arrived in the world on March 13.
“It was such a crazy time, it doesn’t feel like it’s real,” Ms Romanes said.
“My other two boys were through IVF, whereas Olli was conceived naturally. After the accident, he was meant to be.”
The Romanes’ now plan on spending another fortnight or so in Darwin to recuperate, before heading back to Kununurra to work and rebuild their strained finances – their truck was written off.
After Kununurra, the Romanes’ plan on making their way to Far North Queensland around Christmas time.
The 77-year-old utility driver did not survive his injuries.
Emergency services discovered him trapped in his vehicle and commenced CPR upon his extraction, but it was not enough to save him.
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