SINGAPORE – Four-year-old Zara Mei celebrated her birthday on New Year’s Day and went on her first skiing trip in December, but on Jan 23 her life was cut short in a fatal accident near her home.
Zara was walking to her River Valley home after pre-school with her two-year-old sister and their maid Lily when a car drove around a nearby street corner and knocked her down.
Speaking to The Straits Times on Jan 28, Zara’s father Nick Orlic said the maid was holding the younger girl’s hand and carrying their school bags, and gave Zara the green light to cross the road after checking that it was safe.
Zara’s six-year-old sister was not with them at the time.
Dr Orlic, a senior lecturer at Nanyang Business School, said: “Zara was a careful girl. She was taught to check the roads before crossing.”
The street was usually not busy with traffic either, he added, although illegal parking and speeding cars were a problem.
The maid, an Indonesian in her 30s, said she could not reach Zara in time after she was knocked down by the car. All she could do was scream for the driver to stop, but the car stopped only after some time.
Dr Orlic, 39, said he was at home, just minutes away from the accident spot, when he got a phone call from the maid, and he raced down to where Zara was.
“When I saw her, my heart sank. Her skull was shattered. She was bleeding profusely from her nose, mouth and head. And her eyes were closed,” he said.
Singapore Civil Defence Force paramedics arrived soon after and found that Zara had a faint pulse, he added.
The child was rushed to hospital, where a surgeon told Dr Orlic that Zara’s chances of survival were not good.