Schoolgirl, 18, is killed despite heroic efforts of brothers who cut her from the wreckage and gave her CPR after the car she was in flipped and landed upside down in a river
- 18-year-old schoolgirl killed despite heroic attempts of witnesses to save her
- Tiarni Jean Simpson a passenger in Toyota Landcruiser when it left the road
- Driver pulled from wreckage by witnesses who climbed down embankment
- Two brothers and a third passerby climbed down to the wreckage to reach her
- But despite their efforts to revive her the young woman died at the scene
Tiarni Jean Simpson was killed after the car she was a passenger in rolled off an embankment and crashed into a river
An 18-year-old schoolgirl was killed when the car she was in crashed into a river, despite the heroic attempts of witnesses to save her.
Tiarni Jean Simpson was a passenger in a Toyota Landcruiser on Sunday morning when it left Allyn River Road, 125km east of Muswellbrook in the NSW Hunter region.
The driver – also 18 – was freed from the car but Ms Simpson had to be pulled from the wreckage by three passersby who climbed down the embankment to reach her.
Sam Hinder, his brother Benn, and a third man Todd Knox freed the young woman from the car – which was flipped upside down in the water.
The trio then tried in vain to resuscitate her through CPR as she lay dying by the side of the road until paramedics arrived.
But the young woman – who had to be cut out of her seat belt with a knife the men found – died at the scene.
Todd Knox (pictured) freed the young woman from the car – which had flipped in the water – by cutting her out of her seat belt
‘Felt like forever – it was up to about an hour, it was a very long time before the helicopter came,’ Sam Hinder told the Newcastle News.
‘It was hard to get her through the window so we had to get the door open and get her out.
‘[It was] a shock to the system – scary situation.’
Posting online, friend Erika Orchard said Ms Simpson was the ‘life of any party’ and an ‘amazing kind caring girl’.
‘She has plenty of friends and family who will greatly miss her,’ the friend wrote.
Her grandfather Michael Simpson described her on Facebook as being ‘full of life and beautifulness’.
‘She will be missed dearly in my heart,’ he wrote in the online post.
Witnesses Sam Hinder (pictured left) and his brother Benn were also among the heroic rescuers
A fundraiser has been set up on GoFundMe to help her family afford funeral costs, which has so far raised $1,900 towards its $35,000 goal.
‘Tiarni was a gorgeous 18 year old girl,’ the page reads.
‘She was known to everyone as TJ – fun, outgoing and full of life.’
The driver of the car was winched from the river and airlifted to John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle in a stable condition.
Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.
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