The eight-year-old who survived a crash that killed her New Zealand mother, and two siblings, has described how she escaped the family’s car after it plunged into a river in Australia.
Stephanie King, a New Zealander, tried to save her three children when their vehicle crashed and sank into the Tweed River in NSW on April 3.. However she, and her children Ella-Jane, 11 and Jacob, 7, died as the car sank.
King’s daughter, Chloe-May Kabealo, was the only survivor.
The eight-year-old attended a fundraiser for her family over the weekend, and spoke of her miraculous escape to reporters.
“I unbuckled my seatbelt and I tried to go up for air and then I just kept floating up out of something and then I got out,” Chloe said at the fundraising event.
Chloe swam to shore, and raised the alarm at a nearby house.
“They just took me in, and lent me some clean clothes and cleaned up the cuts on my feet,” she said.
A GoFundMe page has so far raised $156,687 of its $165,000 target to help support Chloe and her father, Matt Kabealo.
