A five-year-girl is being hailed a hero for saving the life of her two baby brothers after they were left stranded for more than two days in searing Outback heat in the wake of a horrific car crash that killed both the children’s parents.
Cindy Braddock, 25, and Jake Day, 28, perished when their Land Rover Discovery careened off the remote Corrigin-Kondinin Road in Western Australia‘s wheatbelt, and flipped in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The Christmas Day tragedy saw their young kids trapped in the mangled wreck of the vehicle, which despite frantic search efforts was not found until 55 hours later.
Cindy Braddock, 25, and Jake Day, 28, were killed when their their Land Rover Discovery left a remote WA highway and flipped
The family had left Northam, WA, at about 1am on Sunday and were heading home to Kondinin, some 200km away
The car was found by close family friends of the couple with the children still inside wreckage besides their parents bodies.
Michael Read, a cousin to the parents, said on Wednesday without the girl’s efforts the infant would not have survived.
‘What I’ve gathered is the five-year-old became unstuck in the vehicle, and she then got the one-year-old out of the car seat, then they were stuck in the car for 55 hours in 30-degree heat,’ he told the ABC.
‘It would have been hard for the three children to be in the car for that whole time. Nobody knows what they went through.
‘And if it wasn’t for the five-year-old undoing the buckle of the one-year old’s car seat, he wouldn’t be with us today.’
Mr Day’s stepfather Richard Parker also praised the five-year-old’s actions, calling her a hero.
Mr Day and Ms Braddock pose with their three young children, all who miraculously survived the crash and the long wait after to be rescued
‘She’s a legend, she always has been … she’s a strong little girl,’ he said, adding that he had also been out searching and was about 10km from the crash scene when they were found,’ he told The West.
‘I appreciate the people who were out there helping us look for them. We’ll get through it, we’ve just got to plod along. ‘
Mr Read said the children were ‘being loved by family, nurses and doctors’ since arriving at the hospital and are all ‘doing fine’.
The extended family are now taking it one step at a time in deciding what is next for the children.
‘It is hard, having three kids now growing up with nobody. Apart from other family members,’ Mr Read said. ‘We’re going bit by bit at the moment.’
The car was found upside-down in an embankment just 10Km away from the family’s destination on Corrigin-Kondinin Road, just before midday on Tuesday
Ms Braddock, Mr Day and their children were reported missing on Christmas Day when they didn’t show up to a family celebration.
They’d last been seen leaving Northam, a town in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt about 100km east of Perth, at 1am on Christmas Day.
The family was making the 200km journey home to Kondinin to spend what was left of Christmas with Mr Day’s mother.
The tragic crash happened only 10km from the family’s home.
Mr Read said the community will be devastated by the loss of the young parents.
A GoFundMe page to raise money for the orphaned children has already seen over $5,000 pledged.
Family members say the death of the fun-loving young couple is a severe blow to their tight-knit community
The couple had last been seen at around 1am on Christmas Day, travelling in this maroon Land Rover Discovery wagon from Northam to Kondinin
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