- Mum Bec Zieth, 43, is thankful her daughters are okay after her teenage daughter Ainsley was seriously injured after her car rolled
- Younger sister Dakotah climbed into the wreck, freed Ainsley and got help, saving her life
- Dakotah later received a Queensland Ambulance Bravery Award, while Ainsley made a full recovery and started university
Here Bec Zieth, 43, tells her own story in her own words.
The weekend drawing to a close, I was looking forward to seeing my daughters, Ainsley, then 17, and Dakotah, 14.
They’d been with their dad, Damien, at Elliott Heads, two-and-a-half hours from our home in Monto, Qld.
‘We’re leaving now, Mum,’ Ainsley said, on the phone. ‘Be home about 5.30pm.’
‘Okay, drive safe,’ I said.
It was Sunday, October 26, 2025, and Ainsley, who’d got her P-plates that March, had saved up for her own car by working a part-time job.
A careful driver, she knew the route between our homes well and often chauffeured her sister to cattle club activities.
An hour later, at 4pm, I was thinking about what to cook for dinner when my mobile rang from an unknown number.
‘Your daughters have been in a car accident,’ a woman named Kylie said. ‘Ainsley’s injured, but Dakotah’s okay.’
My blood ran cold.
I called Damien then, too shaken to drive, rang my in-laws, DJ and Lynnie, who lived nearby, to collect me.
The 40-minute drive felt like forever.
They’re both alive, I kept reassuring myself. That’s all that matters.
At the scene, emergency vehicles blocked the road, so I leapt out and ran.
Then Dakotah appeared.
‘Calm down, Mum,’ she soothed. ‘We’re okay.’
READ MORE: ‘Camping accident: A gum tree trapped me inside my swag’
Paramedics were kneeling beside Ainsley, who lay on a spinal board wearing a neck brace.
She was deathly pale, her hair dishevelled and blood covering her clothes. Grazes marked her body and a deep gash split her hand.
‘I’m sorry, Mum,’ she murmured.
‘Don’t be sorry, baby,’ I stammered.
‘I don’t know what happened,’ she croaked, dazed and bewildered.
Glancing around, I frowned. ‘Where’s the car?’ I asked.
READ MORE: Shopping centre horror: My leg was crushed by a runaway car
Then I looked down. There, twenty metres below us, at the bottom of a steep dirt embankment, was the mangled wreckage of Ainsley’s car.
It’d hit a road sign, careered off the road and somersaulted before coming to rest on its roof near a creek.
The windscreen and driver’s window were smashed, and Ainsley’s side of the roof had concertinaed in.
My stomach lurched.
How could anyone have got out of that alive? I wondered.
Slowly, the extraordinary story emerged as Dakotah filled me in.
‘As the car tumbled, Ainsley was knocked unconscious,’ she said.
When it finally landed, upside down, Dakotah screamed at her sister, desperately shaking her until Ainsley came around.
Able to push open her door, Dakotah scrambled free, then went around to Ainsley’s crushed side.
‘I crawled through the broken window, unclipped her seatbelt and yanked her out,’ Dakotah explained.
Despite being tiny, Dakotah managed to drag her badly-injured sister up the embankment.
READ MORE: ‘Aussie toddler crushed by LandCruiser at campground’
Then, leaving Ainsley, conscious, on a patch of grass, she set off along the road searching for help.
Meanwhile, with no phone reception, Ainsley’s Life360 app had detected the crash and alerted emergency services.
A severe thunderstorm was rolling in, and the sky had turned eerily dark when an approaching car saw Ainsley and stopped.
Incredibly, one of the occupants, Kylie, was a nurse. She stayed with Ainsley while her husband drove on and found Dakotah.
Another vehicle with Starlink pulled up, and Kylie made the call to me.
Now, as the storm broke, paramedics loaded Ainsley into the ambulance. I went with her, while Dakotah went with my in-laws and an ambulance officer to be checked.
Incredibly, she escaped with only scratches and bruises.
At Monto Hospital, doctors called LifeFlight to transfer Ainsley to Bundaberg Hospital, where scans revealed a serious spinal fracture.
Twelve hours later, a second helicopter rushed her to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
I went with her, while Damien and Dakotah drove to be with us.
Scans revealed Ainsley had fractured her C7 vertebra at the base of her neck and four vertebrae in her upper back.
She’d lost sensation in her arm and needed seven stitches in her hand.
The spine being such a delicate area, any surgery carried huge risks. The thought that my girl could be paralysed was terrifying.
Then some optimistic news. Because Ainsley was so young, doctors believed the fractures could knit naturally without surgery. So Ainsley was discharged a week later in a neck brace.
Largely bedridden, for eight weeks she had to severely restrict her movement while her spine healed. Watching my active teen lying motionless was heartbreaking, but she never complained.
‘You’re the bravest and strongest person I know,’ Ainsley said to Dakotah. ‘You saved my life.’
‘I just did what I had to do,’ Dakotah replied. ‘You’re my sister.’
As Ainsley recovered, the magnitude of what Dakotah had done sank in. I’d come so close to losing one – or both – of my girls.
‘I’m just glad it was me who got hurt and not Dakotah,’ Ainsley told me.
My heart squeezed.
In March 2026, at Monto State High, Dakotah was recognised for her courage, and presented with a Queensland Ambulance Bravery Award.
Watching my quiet girl stand there, my heart was bursting with pride.
Ainsley, 18, is now back to her usual active self, and found the courage to get behind the wheel again.
The first time she drove past the crash site was emotional, but with us all beside her, she’s accepted it was just a freak accident.
She’s also graduated from high school and is now studying a four-year speech pathology degree at uni.
I’m so thankful to the kind strangers who stopped that day, the emergency crews, hospital staff and LifeFlight teams who saved my girl.
Dakotah, 15, has never considered herself a hero.
But to me, that’s exactly what she is.
I feel incredibly lucky to have my two daughters.
And I’ll be forever grateful for my brave girl who refused to leave her big sister behind.
LifeFlight is hosting free road safety trauma training through its First Minutes Matter Road Response course. Unlike traditional first-aid training, Road Response focuses on the unique challenges of roadside incidents, from the dangers of passing traffic and damaged vehicles to practical things first responders can do to help seriously injured casualties before emergency services crews arrive.
To find out more visit Emergency Road Response Training | LifeFlight
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
