Mother haunted by call from beauty queen daughter moments before death | 60 Minutes Australia

in hindsight it was destined to end in disaster sarah jarrazza was young beautiful and full of life but one night a month ago she was upset after an argument sarah got behind the wheel and then she made a phone call she was distracted distressed and in a split second out of control when sarah careered off the road and slammed into a tree she was on the phone to her mother fiona gerazza will forever be haunted by the sound of her daughter's final terrible moments tonight the jurassic family is speaking out in the hopes sarah's death will force change this is where paul and fiona jarazza must now visit their eldest daughter [Music] beautiful brown eyes just continue looking at me the family's shock and pain is still raw just a month ago 26 year old sarah seemed unstoppable beautiful vibrant and full of life we've lost a precious part of our life that is now gone forever all we've got left to hang on to is the memories [Music] to lose a child in a road accident is always a tragedy but few parents will ever know the anguish of fiona jurassa who heard those terrible final moments of her daughter's life [Music] and i just um i just kept saying i love you sarah i love you we're coming hang in there we're coming [Music] from the time she was a child growing up on sydney's northern beaches sarah was always a people person a part-time model and beautician she had a huge circle of friends always stood out of a crowd made sure that she made an entrance anywhere she went happy loving family orientated and that's what i'll take in my heart forever with sarah i class it like a an expensive bottle of champagne full of bubbles she was just a very nice friendly lovable person but when sarah arrived home at 6 30 on the night of august 26th she wasn't her usual bubbly self as a mother as my natural instincts i knew she deep down was obviously hurt or upset so as a mum you had this instinct that something wasn't quite right because that's what mothers do sarah had been upset by an argument earlier in the afternoon and fiona tried to talk her out of going out for dinner and i looked in her beautiful brown eyes and i just said um sarah look i'll take you let me drive you i said look you know it gives us time to chat he goes no mom no look i'm fine i just i just need to go out i'll be fine but fiona was still worried about her daughter driving while so upset when sarah's boyfriend scott dropped by a few minutes later they decided to follow the route she'd taken to the city to make sure she'd arrived safely so we got to the end of the street and the phone flashed and it was her name sarah on the iphone and scott put it on loudspeaker sarah was on an unlit section of the wakehurst parkway at narrabeen in sydney at the point she made her call the road curves to the left it was a curve sarah didn't see until it was too late you know what what we heard was some sarah's voice saying oh [ __ ] and um noises whooshing through the sounds of the phone and the car radio playing and um breathing heavy breathing and a gas for air and then it was just the noise i don't know if it was the bushes or the car or the washing noise i'll never forget the washing noise going through the phone and i just um i just kept saying i love you sarah i love you we're coming hang in there we're coming in those few distracted seconds instead of veering left sarah's car plowed straight ahead it crossed the center line and careered off the opposite side of the road where it hit an embankment rolled once and slammed into a tree her mum had heard the moment of impact over the phone and now traveling the same route she was the first person to come upon the crash site we still had her phone the whole time we just kept hearing these noises and there was not much more coming from sarah but there was this incredible glow in the bush and it was the headlights of the car and and i jumped out of the car and i ran towards a car and my leg sort of gave way and he was like she didn't want me to find her i'll get any closer and i just collapsed and then scott came back to me and said um i've taken a pulse but i'm sorry and i just i just couldn't believe what i was hearing and i just said no okay [Music] fiona called her husband paul but she was so distraught she couldn't bring herself to tell him sarah was dead when i arrived the police did try and stop me but i i said look that's my daughter you're not stopping me i said no way so i walked up and i looked in the car she looked beautiful and hair was nice she had a seatbelt on to me she just looked like she was pinned in the car it looked like her eyes were open but then i'm sort of rubbing her shoulder saying sweetheart you're right you know don't worry and in a fiery tapped me on the shoulder and said mate you know she's deceased don't you and that's my heart just fell out my heart i just crumbled then paul stayed by sarah's side for the next seven hours until crash investigators could remove her body from the crumpled wreck it was the hardest seven hours of my life and i still today can't believe she's not here i pinch myself every day you just think what a waste it is it you know we feel we've been robbed yeah um my poor wife has to relive that moment in her head over and over again and no family wants to be in that position it's amazing when you drive along how many cars you look into and just see them get on the phone doing their text looking away and just crazy in new south wales assistant commissioner john hartley is the man responsible for enforcing tough new penalties for mobile phone use while driving but the message is falling on deaf ears in a recent one-day blitz 800 people were booked across the state and toddler runs out you don't ceiling you can't stop in time so and that's some guilt to live with oh look for a mobile phone call it's bad enough for the the person who's um been the driver but obviously the family suffer forever and that's what people don't realize that there is no coming back from a fatality it's it's a family suffering forever and i'll never get over never get over it this is sarah's room her treasured room this is a dog coco this is her gorgeous dog that she absolutely loved and this is her baby this is her baby and she's feeling it at the moment she's pretty sad she comes in here every day and looks in the mirror searching for our beautiful girl sarah ironically for fiona some of the most treasured memories of sarah are those she sent via her mobile phone hey mama telling me i'm just finishing up the meeting having another drink um sorry mr claus probably a little bit late with sydney um give me a call back when you're ready love you love you that was her little thing that she'd always finish off with any voicemails mummy i love you [Music] for mom to have to literally hear her daughter run into a tree to have to hear the screeching of a tire and then a final bang that would be the worst thing for mom to ever like i could not imagine what mom's going through for sarah's brothers rob and pete and her little sister laura the circumstances of the crash make the pain that much harder to bear my mum just came through the door saying she's gone my beautiful daughter she's gone and she just kept repeating that and repeating it but i've never seen my mother like that ever there's not one person that hasn't touched their phone while driving people can deny it but everyone has everyone's looked at the time or looked at their you know messages and like me myself i do it i'm not gonna lie and say i don't because i do and like but seeing what has happened to my sister i don't want to touch it you know i i just put it down that's what i do [Music] sarah made a fatal mistake but she was no different to millions of australians whose mobile phones ruled their busy lives i say it all the time i mean i'm a landscaper i've got a truck i drive and the amount of people that are texting talking on the phone is unbelievable every second carl would see someone on the phone yeah but unfortunately the technology today has made us has made us so dependent on the telephone it seems it rings and we want to answer it because that's what we've got to do paul and fiona can only hope that the senselessness of sarah's death will help send a powerful message [Music] what would you say to people it's just within seconds or minutes it's all it takes for anyone to just lose their precious child or children or any loved ones and honestly everyone's got to wake up i would just say to parents to kids you know you give your daughter or your son or your husband or your wife a cuddle give him a kiss tell him you love him [Music] love hearts i love you cheers cheers for my mummy love hearts enjoy kissy soon is it comforting for you it is it is comforting yeah just reminds me of how sweet and beautiful and and how much i'm going to miss about her but i'm hoping that my daughter's death is not in vain carl i really do hello i'm liam bartlett 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Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 456,129

Rating: 4.8019452 out of 5

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, Karl Stefanovic, Ray Martin, Peter Stefanovic, Jana Wendt, Jeff McMullen, Jennifer Byrne, Mike Munro, Richard Carleton, Sarah Abo, driving, crash, texting, tragedy, car, phone, iphone, dead, beauty queen, miss world, mourn, change, law, legal, family, loss, death while texting, driving and texting, on the phone, phone cameras

Id: KeUR3U8VIRI

Length: 13min 8sec (788 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021