Close call: Lauren Monahan, Sophie Mildren and Eliza Greig enjoying the Falls Festival before the accident. Picture: The Brianstorm Project/Brian Purnell.
ERIN PEARSON
THREE Geelong teens narrowly avoided a pre New Years Eve tragedy after a ute rolled onto their tent at Lorne’s Falls Festival last week, according to witnesses.
Lauren Monahan and Sophie Mildren of Newtown and Eliza Greig of Wandana Heights, were asleep in their tent during the early hours of December 30 when the ute slid down a hill trapping two of the girls.
Ms Greig said the three were lucky to survive.
“I felt the impact hard on my back and then all I could hear was screaming. My leg was stuck under the car,” she said.
“Lauren went into survival mode and ripped open the tent to help me out but we couldn’t get to Sophie.
“It was the most terrifying thing.”
Ms Grieg said the girls, all 19, were left battered and bruised but miraculously escaped serious injury.
Lorne SES acting controller Adrian Sleep said it appeared the car slid sideways down a hill before landing upright on the tent.
“Once we got in there we used air bags to lift the vehicle off the girl (Sophie) and she was pulled from underneath,” he said.
Mr Sleep said the rescue effort had been hampered by poor security.
“It took us half an hour to get close enough because security failed to clear a safe passage ahead of time. Security staff simply stood back and watched.”
Falls Festival director Simon Daly said it was the event’s first ever accident.
He said human error was to blame after cars were wrongly parked on a steep hill in a previously out of bounds area.
“The area hasn’t been parked on ever before because it’s dangerous and next year it’ll be roped off.
“Apart from the incident the festival ran perfectly.”
