Girl, 5, Saves the Lives of Her 2 Baby Brothers After Car Crash Kills Parents in Australia: 'A Miracle'
GoFundMe
Three children survived alone in a car for over two days after their parents were killed in a crash early Christmas Day in Western Australia.
A 5-year-old girl and her two younger brothers, ages 1 and 2, were found in the remote area by a family member on Tuesday, Australia's ABC and Nine News reported.
The parents — Cindy Braddock, 25, and Jake Day, 28 — were found dead inside their vehicle, which had rolled off the roadway, per the outlets.
According to the reports, Michael Read, a relative of the victims, said the young children were stuck in the car for 55 hours as temperatures reached 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Read also credited the 5-year-old girl with saving her 1-year-old brother's life shortly after the crash in Kondinin.
"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," he said, per the outlets.
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The family was last seen by relatives around 1 a.m. on Christmas morning as they began a two-hour drive home from Northam, per ABC's report.
Nathan O'Donnell, a gas station worker in Northam, told ABC that the family stopped by the business shortly after 1 a.m. on Sunday.
The man said the family "looked very exhausted" as they prepared for what they said was a couple hours' drive.
"They then got out, put fuel in, then they came in, they went to the toilet, they came and bought drinks and snacks and stuff for the road," he added.
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Police said the family's Land Rover rolled off Corrigin-Kondinin Road on Sunday morning, per The Guardian. It is currently unclear what caused the crash.
All three children were trapped inside the vehicle until they were found on Tuesday, Read said, according to ABC. The 2-year-old boy, he noted, was still strapped in.
The trio, who were dehydrated when found, were transported to Perth Children's Hospital for treatment, ABC and The Guardian reported.
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Read told reporters that the children are "doing fine" and should be released "within the next couple of days."
Wreckage from Sunday's crash was found several meters off Corrigin-Kondinin Road in an area known as the Wheatbelt, per the reports.
According to ABC, local leaders Darren Pool and Bruce Browning are surprised that the children went unnoticed on the side of the road for days.
"It's amazing the amount of traffic that would've gone past and not seen them," said Pool, the Kondinin publican, per the outlet.
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Officials have also expressed concerns about the road conditions where the family was traveling. Shire president Kent Mouritz said local roads, especially in the Wheatbelt, are "dangerous" and declining in quality, ABC reported.
"Everywhere in the Wheatbelt, roads are broken up," he said, per the outlet, adding, "the increased heavy traffic on the roads, due to the non-use of rail lines, has created a dangerous situation."
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However, Mouritz did not indicate that road conditions were directly to blame for Tuesday's crash.
A GoFundMe campaign has been started to support Braddock and Day's family with funeral costs and any living expenses for their children.
"Devastatingly, Jake and Cindy did not survive the accident, but an angel was looking over the kids," the fundraiser says, calling it "a miracle" that the children survived.
