Sophie Russon: Bank worker who survived fatal car crash is 'unrecognizable' due to severe burns, broken neck and spine
CARDIFF, WALES: The mother of one of the two survivors of the Cardiff car crash has revealed that her daughter's injuries are so severe that she is "unrecognizable" after being trapped in the rubble for nearly two days. Sophie Russon, 20, was one of the five victims of the horrific crash that killed three of her friends over the weekend.
More than 46 hours elapsed between the last sighting and the discovery of the wreckage, according to Gwent and South Wales police. The victim's mother Anna Certowicz has been keeping a close watch by her bedside as she continues to remain in critical condition in the hospital. The accident happened on Friday, March 3, as Russon and her friends Eve Smith, Darcy Ross, Rafel Jeanne, and Shane Loughlin were making their way from Porthcrawl to a bar in Newport.
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What happened to Sophie Russon?
Russon is a 20-year-old bank worker. In addition to breaking her neck and spine, she also experienced a fractured skull and a brain bleed, her mother, Certowicz, told The Sun. The force of the collision, according to Certowicz, caused Russon to sustain burns from her seatbelt, and she was left hanging inside the vehicle after it came to rest at a sharp downward angle.
'She doesn’t know where she is or what happened'
Despite suffering terrible injuries, Russon managed to escape the collision and spent 46 hours lying next to Smith, Ross, and Jeanne, all of whom sadly died, and her friend Loughlin, who survived. The 41-year-old, Certowicz, said, "She doesn’t know where she is or what happened. She had panic attacks throughout the night when she came around so they sedated her. She’s in shock and has a lot of injuries. You can't recognize her."
'She was in the car with bodies all around her'
The 21-year-olds, Smith and Ross, as well as 24-year-old Jeanne were all slain in the collision that followed the Volkswagen Tiguan. Loughlin, 32, is still in a critical state at the University Hospital of Wales. The devastated mother said that her daughter would've been "petrified" to have been left lying there for nearly two days with such terrible wounds. "She was in the car with bodies all around her, that’s a lot for anybody," said Certowicz. Russon's mother stated, "She was in a small space, cold, scared stiff and not able to reach her mobile phone." She added, "There’s no words to describe it. I can’t imagine how long it’s going to take for her to get over this. She’s going to need a lot of support. "I'm heartbroken for the families of Eve and Darcy. They’ve lost a child at the end of the day, I nearly lost mine."
