An Auckland mother is demanding answers after a truck tyre struck her family's car on the Southern Motorway last week, with the driver of the vehicle that shed the tyre yet to be identified.
The accident injured Roimata Ironui's children and left the family without a car.
Ironui was travelling southbound on State Highway 1 near the Te Irirangi Dr overbridge shortly after 1.30pm on June 17 with her partner and three children, heading to the supermarket.
Moments before the crash, her children were singing Bruno Mars in the back seat.
Ironui said the first she knew, the tyre was already in the air.
"It was all too late. It was too fast and it was too late," she told 1News.
In the seconds that followed, she made a decision in an instant she believes saved her daughter's life, steering the car left so the impact would hit the driver's side instead.
"The tyre would have taken her life. I'm not even playing around," she said.
"I would have preferred it to be me. That's why I made the tyre hit my side of the bonnet."
The tyre struck the front of the car, triggering the airbags. Her daughter suffered friction burns to both arms, though her puffer jacket limited the severity above the wrist.
Ironui received burns to her arms, thigh, lower leg and hips. A hospital X-ray showed swelling but no fractures, she said.
For Ironui, the lasting question was simply how her family survived at all.
"We should not be having this interview. We should be dead. I have no idea how we got five chances that day. It's just something you don't see."
The family's car, which was under a finance agreement, was "significantly damaged". With the vehicle impounded by police and all documentation from the scene held as evidence, the family was initially unable to provide the finance company with proof of what had happened. The finance company has since arranged for a mechanic to assess the damage.
Also in the car were her four-month-old infant and her seven-year-old son. Ironui said her son, who has autism, was so severely traumatised he refused to get into another car that evening and could not sleep without prescription melatonin from his paediatrician.
No video of the incident
When police attended, they told Ironui they had checked the southbound cameras but could not locate the tyre, suggesting it had likely bounced into the bushes.
Ironui was less than 100 metres from an overbridge and struggled to accept there was no footage available.
Police confirmed the crash occurred around 1.37pm on June 17 and that motorway staff attended the scene.
Senior Sergeant Bill Russell said officers liaised with camera operators at the Joint Traffic Operations Centre, who spent considerable time reviewing available footage.
"Unfortunately, this is a case where the crash itself has not been captured on camera and no other vehicles involved have been located in the area."
He confirmed police had exhausted all available lines of inquiry.
Ironui said she could not understand why the driver had not come forward, and questioned how a truck could continue driving after losing a tyre.
"They're not gonna make it anywhere — you're gonna end up in the grass. Where did you go with three tyres?" she said.
"If he does have his own family, would he have wanted someone to stop and come forward?"
Police acknowledged the ordeal the family had been through.
"We understand something like this occurring would be quite startling and upsetting for occupants of the vehicle," Russell said.
Anyone with relevant information is asked to contact police online or by calling 105, quoting reference number 260617/0072.
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