Childminder relives drama as tree crushes car in Southampton with childen inside

Shaken Corinne Isaacs has described the terrifying moment a 40-tonne tree fell on to her car and trapped a helpless two-year-old in the back seat.

As previously reported, the childminder, from Bitterne, was doing the everyday school run to Sholing Infant School when a tree on Freemantle Common Road almost killed her, two-year-old Tallulah and one-year-old Nissi.

Reliving the harrowing moment she recalls the quiet creaking of branches becoming an almighty crash on her roof.

And as she and the two children were trapped in the car a dog walker ignored their cries for help.

She said: “I don’t think I really registered what was happening but the adrenaline just kicked in. All I remember hearing is a creaking sound from the tree and then everything happened at once.

“The children in the back were screaming and I was crying for help but nobody came, nobody living there came out and a dog walker saw what happened. I screamed for help and he ran away.”

Miss Isaacs, 44 said she remembers breaking through the window and leaving the children in the car as she ran to a nearby care home for help.

The emergency services arrived and immediately got to work on cutting Tallulah out of her car seat.

Miss Isaacs believes that if it wasn’t for the design of the car seats both c h i l d r e n would have been killed.

She added: “I r e m e m b e r looking at Tallulah and trying to reach her, telling her it was alright, the tree trunk had smashed through the car and was on her legs – I was sure they were broken.

“I just can’t believe that she and Nissi are alright, when you look at the pictures it’s just harrowing and you really see just how bad it was, it seems impossible that we left unscathed.

“The images of it keep coming back to me, I keep seeing Tallulah and hearing the screams and feeling so helpless, I can’t sleep and the doctors have said I’ve got whiplash and I’m off work for a week but the children are fine”

Tallulah’s mother, Lorraine Turner, 39 from Woolston has known Corinne for more than seven years and all three of her children have been looked after by her.

She said: “It’s a miracle, and in a way I was more concerned for Corinne, kids are so resilient and at that age it hopefully doesn’t leave any lasting damage but when you’re an adult you’re much more aware.

“Tallulah is right as rain, and I’ve been a bit like a machine and just got on with it. I’m a single mum so I’ve dealt with this on my own but friends and family are messaging me and when I got to the scene there were so many young people helping and all the ambulance people and police were just amazing. Their manner was so nice and calming.

“I want to say a big thank you to everyone that helped, this was no small thing. It couldn’t have been any closer. One of the first things Tallulah’s dad said was thank God she didn’t have a cheap car. It was very emotional but I have the utmost respect for Corinne I’m sure if I was in that position I would have died from the shock.”