An 11-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after she was dragged along the road for 173m by a car when its teenager driver mowed her down.
Sarah Degier, now aged 12, holds ‘no grudge’ against the teenager who ran into her with his SUV last May and thought he just hit a bird.
The brave girl was dragged along face down under the Toyota LandCruiser, with her foot trapped in the undercarriage.
She put her hands on road, holding her face away from the ground. Her screams alerted passersby, who chased after the car, shouting at the driver to stop.
Sarah Degier (pictured) was dragged 173 metres under an SUV before it stopped. The teenage driver thought he’d hit a bird
A woman called to Sarah’s home in Dalby, in Queensland’s Western Downs, and told her dad, Shane, that his daughter had been hit by a car.
Sarah’s mum Kate, who is an engineer, was in north Queensland working for BHP.
When Shane got to nearby Condamine Street, Sarah was in an ambulance and badly injured.
The teenager who hit Sarah was in shock with an oxygen mask over his face.
‘She was riding to school on the footpath and he came out of a shop and hit her,’ Shane told The Courier Mail.
‘He hit her because at that particular spot, the cars could only come from the right. So he only looked right. Sarah came from the left.’
Seven months on, Sarah said the ordeal felt both like an eternity and an instant.
‘A lady got underneath the car with me, telling me not to move my head or anything,’ Sarah said.
Sarah Degier (pictured) is leading a relatively normal life now, but still needs years of medical attention
The woman stayed there with her until an ambulance arrived, asking Sarah her dad’s name, phone number and address.
Senior Constable Brad Davidson also got down on the ground to comfort her.
‘Brad, the officer, climbed underneath the car and grabbed her hand to tell her everything was OK,’ Mr Degier said.
Nine of Sarah’s fingers were burned from the friction as she was dragged backwards and trying to pull herself up to keep her head off the ground.
She was on the ground and under the car for 10 minutes while emergency services tried to figure out the safest way to get her out. In the end, she just crawled out.
When her dad arrived, Sarah cried for the first time in the whole ordeal.
‘She said she was sorry that she got hit by the car. That was the first thing she said. She said I’m sorry … and, can you call school and let them know that I won’t be in today,’ Mr Degier said.
Sarah Degier was dragged 173 under a car on Condamine Street (pictured) in Dalby, Queensland
Sarah had severe burns and grazes on her hips, legs, arms, fingers and cheeks, but also even worse injuries.
‘The left side of her back was broken and then the left side of her pelvis and the left elbow was split open from the impact, and as it was dragged down the road, it was shaving the bone off,’ her dad said.
Sarah’s mother Kate’s employer BHP called another company and asked them to give up a seat on the next flight to Brisbane.
Sarah was taken by helicopter to the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, where doctors found she did not have life-threatening injuries.
And that’s when her dad broke down.
Shane and Kate Degier (pictured left and right) are Sarah Degier’s parents
‘So, here’s Sarah not crying throughout the whole thing, apart from when I first got there, and here I am an absolute mess.’
Sarah has already had several surgeries and will continue to have medical treatment for years to reduce her scarring.
The driver who hit her was given a good behaviour bond. Mr Degier asked the police to ensure he was given the help he needed.
‘Kate and I were angry that it happened, but the last thing we want is for him to have issues and it ruin his life over something that clearly wasn’t intentional,’ he said. ‘And Sarah also understood that.’
‘I have no grudge against him,’ Sarah said. She hopes to one day become a surgeon.
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