A heroic mother-of-three has opened up about how she pulled Home and Away actress Jessica Falkholt and her sister from a horror car wreck.
Lisa Elmas, 44, risked her own life to drag Jessica and her sister Annabelle to safety after a horrific head-on collision on the New South Wales South Coast on Boxing Day.
The mangled wreckage exploded only moments later, as flames ignited a gas bottle under one of the vehicles.
A heroic mother-of-three (pictured) has opened up about how she pulled Home and Away actress Jessica Falkholt from a horror car wreck
Lisa Elmas, 44, risked her own life to drag Jessica (pictured, right) and her sister Annabelle (pictured, second right, with parents) to safety after a horrific head-on collision on the New South Wales South Coast on Boxing Day
The mangled wreckage (pictured) exploded only moments later, as flames ignited a gas bottle under one of the vehicles
Annabelle, 21, died of her injuries three days later and Jessica, 28, remains in a critical condition, in an induced coma after numerous surgeries.
Their father Lars, 69, and mother Vivian, 60, were killed when their car collided with a white Toyota Prado driven by Craig Anthony Whitall, 50, who also died.
‘Someone was saying we shouldn’t move them in case of spinal injuries, but I knew we had to get them out because the car was going to explode,’ Ms Elmas told The Illawarra Mercury.
‘We got the girls out and I went to the passenger side. The mother had passed, but I wanted to get her body out before the car exploded.
‘Someone was saying we shouldn’t move them in case of spinal injuries, but I knew we had to get them out because the car was going to explode,’ Ms Elmas said (pictured is the crash)
Ms Elmas (pictured), a disability worker from Narrawallee, is not formally trained in first-aid but sprung into action when she arrived on the scene
‘But the flames grew … I said to myself, “I have three children, I need to leave”, so I ran from the car and it went “kaboom”.
Ms Elmas, a disability worker from Narrawallee, is not formally trained in first-aid but sprung into action when she arrived on the scene.
As other witnesses watched in horror, some even filming the wrecked vehicles, she yelled for help and found fire extinguishers to fight the flames.
She was with Mr Whitall when he died, and worked frantically to source first-aid supplies to treat the other crash victims.
Jessica (pictured), 28, remains in a critical condition, in an induced coma after numerous surgeries
Annabelle (pictured), 21, died of her injuries three days later after the fiery head-on collision
Ms Elmas worked alongside Darrin Collier, a maintenance supervisor from Wollongong, to drag the sisters to safety.
The brave father-of-two was hailed as a hero after the crash, and said the horrific scenes will be with him for a ‘long time’.
‘I was one of the first on the scene to this car accident, and to say it was horrific is a massive understatement. Three deceased and two critical,’ he wrote on Facebook.
‘The injuries on the two girls will be something I won’t forget in a long time.’
Darrin Collier, (pictured) a maintenance supervisor from Wollongong, risked his life alongside Ms Elmas and others to drag Jessica and her younger sister Annabelle out of the smashed up Mazda
Their father Lars, 69, and mother Vivian, 60, were killed when their car collided with a white Toyota Prado driven by Craig Anthony Whitall (pictured), 50, who also died
Drawing on her experience in the Army Reserves, Ms Elmas helped coordinate a civilian rescue effort until emergency services arrived on the scene.
Ms Elmas insists she is no hero, and hopes some positives can come out of the Boxing Day tragedy.
She is now calling on the NSW Government to make first-aid kits and fire extinguishers mandatory in all cars.
The road toll for 2017 was 392, 28 of those people losing their lives over the Christmas period.
Ms Elmas insists she is no hero, and hopes some positives can come out of the Boxing Day tragedy (pictured)