Georgina wrestled with the wheel, trying to maintain control, but the
effort was futile. 'Can't hold her. The bridge! Try and get clear-'
Royan hit the quick-release buckle on her safety-belt and reached for
the door handle. The stone walls of the bridge were racing towards them
at a terrifying pace. The Land Rover was slewing across the road,
completely out of control.
The door burst open in Royan's grip, but she could not push it all the
way before the Land Rover was flung into the solid stonework columns
that guarded the approaches PI to the bridge, The two women screamed in
unison as the vehicle crumpled, and the impact hurled them forward. The
windscreen shattered as they bounced off the stone columns, and the body
of the Land Rover flipped over as it went down the embankment and began
to roll.
Royan was catapulted through the open door and flung clear. The slope of
the bank broke her fall, but it knocked the wind out of her. She bounced
and rolled down the incline and then dropped into the icy waters of the
stream below the bridge.
Just before her head went under, she found herself looking up at the sky
and the bridge above her. She caught one last glimpse of the truck
before it roared away. It was towing two huge cargo trailers. The tall
bodywork of the trailers stood higher than the guard rail of the bridge.
Both of the trailers were covered by a heav green nylon tarpaulin roped
down to the lugs on the body. She had only a subliminal glimpse of a
large red trademark and company name painted on the side of the nearest
trailer, but before she could register the name she was plunged below
the surface of the stream and the cold and the force of her fall drove
the air from her lungs.
She fought her way to the surface of the river, and found she had been
washed some way downstream.
Impeded by her sodden clothing, she floundered to the bank and used the
branch of a tree to haul herself out.
She knelt in the mud, coughing up the water she had swallowed and trying
to assess what injury she had suffered in the collision. Then her own
plight was forgotten as she heard the terrible sounds of her mother's
agony from the overturned wreck of the Land Rover.
In frantic haste she clawed herself to her feet and stumbled through the
wet and frosted grass to where the Land Rover lay on its back at the
foot of the embankment.
The bodywork was crumpled and torn, and the bright silver aluminium
metal shone through where the dark green paint had been stripped away.
The engine had stalled, and the front wheels were still spinning
aimlessly as she reached it.
'Mummy! Where are you?' she cried, and the terrible sounds never
checked. She used the metal body of the vehicle to steady herself as she
dragged herself towards the sound, dreading what she might find.
Georgina sat on the wet earth with her back against the side of the car.
Her legs were thrust out straight ahead of her. The left one was twisted
so that the toe of the booted foot was pointed down into the mud at an
unnatural angle. The leg was obviously broken at the knee or very close
