Fatal car crash survivor Jodie Santowski speaks out after 15 years

Jodie Santowski was a teenager when a fully loaded logging truck speared onto the wrong side of the road and into the oncoming hatchback carrying Jodie and her best friends. What happened next will remain with her forever.

Laura Milner, Samantha Yates and Jodie Santowski were best of friends.

When Jodie Santowski was 18 years old she was the sole survivor of a crash on the Tin Can Bay Road that killed her two best friends.

The accident involved a Kenworth prime mover towing two trailers of Tuan timber to Laminex. It basically ran over the top of the small hatchback Jodie, Laura Milner, 21, and Samantha Yates, 18, were in.

The three young women had spent the night at Tin Can Bay in Laura’s parents’ boat at the marina, but on arriving back in Gympie had decided to return to the Bay fearing they’d left the power on.

It was a fateful decision that cost Laura and Samantha their lives, and changed Jodie’s forever.

A memorial remains to this day of the site on the Tin Can Bay Road where two beautiful young women just starting out in life were killed in 2009.

At about 1pm on September 30, 2009, several hundred metres from the Toolara Forest Station, a car and caravan travelling towards Gympie inadvertently triggered a series of events when it pulled over to let the traffic go around.

The Gympie mum remembers Samantha, Laura and her singing and talking in the car as they headed in the opposite direction, towards Tin Can Bay.

She also remembers looking ahead on the road and thinking “what’s happening up there?”

What was happening was the caravan had slowed but the logging truck one vehicle behind it was unable to slow down enough.

It rammed the Camry travelling between the caravan and the truck, sending it spinning and spilling frozen prawns collected from the Bay all over the road, before coming to rest down an embankment.

The two Gympie men in the Camry did not receive life threatening injuries.

Laura Milner, Samantha Yates and Jodie Santowski were best of friends.

‘I HAD NO IDEA WE WERE ABOUT TO BE HIT’

But the truck, after hitting the Camry, speared onto the wrong side of the road, and straight into the Daewoo.

“I had no idea we were about to be hit,” said Jodie.

She remembers nothing of the crash.

She woke up trapped in the wreckage.

The impact had peeled the roof off, completely crushed the vehicle and instantly killed Laura, who was driving.

“I looked over and I saw Laura. Then they put a blanket over her.

“I remember I was crying and there were people beside me.

When Gympie mum Jodie Santowski was 18 years old, she survived a horrific three-vehicle crash on the Tin Can Bay that killed her two best friends, Samantha Yates and Laura Milner.

“I was in and out of consciousness. They kept waking me up to make sure I was okay.

“I was talking to Samantha (Jodie was in the front passenger seat while Samantha was in the back).

“She wasn’t talking back.”

It wasn’t until Jodie was airlifted out and met by her uncle at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital that she was told Samantha had died.

“I was absolutely destroyed,” she said.

“I didn’t know what to think or feel.”

With 25 stitches in her head and severe bruising, Jodie was discharged the next day but was asked to stay in Brisbane for 24 hours in case she needed further medical help.

When Gympie mum Jodie Santowski was 18 years old, she survived a horrific three-vehicle crash on the Tin Can Bay that killed her two best friends, Samantha Yates and Laura Milner.

GUILT OF SURVIVING CRASH STILL HAUNTS HER

She had to take anti anxiety medication before she could even get in the car with her father to leave hospital.

The guilt of surviving that crash, and the trauma of it, still haunts her.

The pain, fear and guilt have eased after 15 years, but she knows they will never disappear.

Jodie does not like travelling on the Tin Can Bay Road “at all”. If she is taking her family of six children to the beach, they are going to Noosa.

But her brother must travel the road every day for work.

That’s why on August 13, 2024, when two cars were involved in a crash with a logging truck on the Tin Can Bay Road, Jodie and her mother were frantic.

When Gympie mum Jodie Santowski was 18 years old, she survived a horrific three-vehicle crash on the Tin Can Bay that killed her two best friends, Samantha Yates and Laura Milner.

Jodie’s mum also still carries the trauma of that day 15 years ago.

Jodie has kept in touch with Laura’s family; Laura’s parents visited to see her children when they were born. Laura was their only daughter.

She says it has been extra tough for Samantha’s parents.

The driver of the B-double, Paul Martin O’Connor, pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death.

He was sentenced to two years jail, wholly suspended for two years, and his licence was disqualified for 18 months.

Jodie said she was not happy with the sentence and felt it was too light.

But she said she spoke to the truck driver at the inquest and realised he was dealing with his own trauma as a result of the crash.

When Gympie mum Jodie Santowski was 18 years old, she survived a horrific three-vehicle crash on the Tin Can Bay that killed her two best friends, Samantha Yates and Laura Milner.

‘IT’S NOT WORTH LOSING YOUR LIFE’

Jodie still lives in Gympie and has six children aged two to 11.

Tin Can Bay Road needs more overtaking lanes and upkeep, she said.

She wishes drivers would “just slow down and drive to the conditions”.

“It’s not worth losing your life or taking someone else’s family with you.”

If Jodie could say anything to her two lost friends, what would it be?

“That I wish we never went back to Tin Can Bay that day. That I wish they were here.

“I hope they are watching from up there and they are proud. I am trying to live my life for them. I wish they could have met my kids.”

Jodie Santowski with four of her children.

Originally published as Fatal car crash survivor Jodie Santowski speaks out after 15 years