Brittany made it out with a dislocated shoulder, jaw and bruises.

Her ‘uncle’ Donald Riley, 46, who had taken his seatbelt off to help Brittany steer when she first collided with the guardrail, and ‘aunty’ Judy Riley, 75, Donald’s mother, died at the scene.

“I was taking my great aunty and uncle to Legana to go shopping,” Brittany told The Mercury.

“It was a horrible day, I looked outside and didn’t want to go, but I’d made a promise.”

She drove the pair north first, where she had an interview – Brittany is a part-time youth worker based at Beaconsfield Neighbourhood House – and then waited while Donald and Judy shopped at Legana.

The trio were at Lanena, on their way home about 3.30pm, when the accident happened.

“I can’t really remember much,” Brittany said.

“I was going around a corner and the roads were wet.

“I believe a tyre blew out.”

In the weeks afterwards, Brittany was in denial and wracked with guilt.

“In the week-and-a-half after the accident, I was drinking non-stop,” she said.

“I had given up smoking for six months before the accident, but afterwards I started smoking heavily and I’m still smoking to this day.”

But, after reading the police report into her accident, and contemporaneous newspaper reports about how many crashes had occurred on and around the time of August 20, a remarkable feeling began to wash over her.

“I spent a long time blaming myself,” Brittany said.

“(But I started to realise) maybe it wasn’t my fault.”

In the eight months since the accident, Brittany’s aunt in Melbourne had “written-off” her pride-and-joy utility, while another aunty and her dad Tristan had both been involved in minor prangs.

“I was on my L-plates,” Brittany said.

“It could have happened to anyone.

“My whole perspective on the accident has changed.

“It’s taken a lot for me to be able to share what I’ve gone through.

“I’ve only just been able to talk about it without crying.”

For that, she credits the support of her parents and fiance.

“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here,” she said.

“Mum and dad have been really supportive of me, they said it’s not your fault and they finally drummed it into me.”

Her fiance, meanwhile, stepped up to the plate by visiting all her Tafe tutors – she was enrolled in a Cert III at the time – to make sure they were fully briefed on the situation and to provide a conduit to Brittany.

And how has Brittany’s life changed since August 20?

“I’m getting married in November,” she said.

“I’d been on-and-off about whether I wanted to marry my partner – he proposed three years ago.

“But I thought, f*** it, I’m going to go to university, I’m going to marry my partner.

“Life’s too short.”

Brittany is now enrolled at Utas completing a Bachelor of Social Work.

Another change?

She’s lost 22kg after kicking her four-a-day energy drink habit.

Brittany was drinking a Rockstar energy drink when she lost her Uncle Donald and Aunty Judy, the memories with which she created she treasures.

“Judy didn’t like being called ‘great aunt’ because it made her feel too old,” Brittany said.

“She used to pretend she was in her early-thirties and I loved her for it.”

Uncle Donald and Brittany, meanwhile, “got up to a lot of mischief” together.

“We’d walk from Low Head to George Town and he’d give me $50 to buy whatever I wanted,” she said.

“And every week he’d come by and give me something from (comic publishers) DC or Marvel.

“I’ve still got a DC book pack, Spider-Man, I haven’t even opened it.

“It was the last thing he gave me.”

‘Our Brittles is a fighter’: Parents share love for daughter after crash

“It was a father’s instinct – I just knew.”

Tristan Donoghue, father of Clarence Point L-plater Brittany Donoghue, 20, who has finally shared her story about the accident on August 20 last year which claimed the lives of two family members, had just switched on the PlayStation when he heard on the radio about a crash on the West Tamar Highway.

He tried calling her – no answer.

“Even if she was driving, I knew Uncle Donald (Riley, 46, who died alongside his mother Judy, 75) would have answered,” Mr Donoghue said.

He picked up his younger brother and set out towards Lanena, but hadn’t got far when Mr Donoghue was shown a picture of Brittany’s crumpled car against the guardrail.

“I blacked out – I can’t remember anything from there onwards,” Mr Donoghue said.

Wife Leisa, meanwhile, also heard vague details about the accident shortly after it happened, but tried to put it to the back of her mind.

“I thought it wouldn’t be her, no way they’d be (at Lanena yet),” Ms Donoghue said.

“Then the ambos rang me.”

She was told Brittany’s numbers were “good”, and she was okay, but couldn’t find out any information about Judy or Donald, who died at the scene.

Ms Donoghue said she had “tried to pull the positives out of the situation”.

Donald and Judy lived in each other’s pockets, she said.

“It would have been their ideal way of going, together.

“They’d just gotten a big feed of KFC (at Legana).

“Judy was starting to get dementia and Donald had a crook liver.

“They went quick. It could have been a long, horrible (way out from them).”

Tristan said he is in awe of daughter Brittany’s resilience.

“She’s just our Brittles,” he said.

“She’s been a high-achiever, ever since she was in school.

“She’s still the solid nugget she is, still a fighter.

“If anything, the accident has made her more driven.

“Life’s too short (to waste).”