During a routine visit to her doctor in Niddrie, Jorjina Odisho, 51, found herself at the center of a tragic accident when an out-of-control vehicle crashed into the clinic. The incident claimed the life of a male pedestrian and left Odisho with significant injuries on Monday.
The mother of two recounted to 9News that her decision to arrive 10 minutes early for her appointment might have been what spared her life.
“I thought, ‘I’ve died. This is it, my final moment,'” Odisho reflected, describing her narrow escape.
“I feel extremely fortunate because the entire building collapsed around me,” she added.
Following the accident, Odisho was airlifted to a hospital, having sustained serious injuries from being thrown across the room.
She regained consciousness in the emergency room, initially unaware of the events that had transpired.
“I was scared because I’ve got two girls and my husband… I said I’m not going to leave them alone.”
The crash fractured Odisho’s leg and left her in a neck brace.
”The police… they asked me, ‘Do you know what’s happened?’ I said, ‘Yes I think it’s a bomb,’” Odisho said.
“And he laughed and he said, ‘No, the car hit you’.”
Dr Rafid Hamdan was in the room when Odisho was injured, but he was not hurt in the crash.
“The patient was flying… she was like flying to the ceiling,” Hamdan said yesterday.
The crash killed one man who was on the footpath near the doctor’s office on Keilor Road.
He is yet to be formally identified.
“I feel sorry for him,” Odisho added.
The 63-year-old driver was questioned by police and released without charge.
Detectives are not ruling anything out, including whether he suffered a diabetic episode.
Detective Inspector Craig McEvoy said on Monday that the car, a silver Alfa Romeo, did not appear to brake before it smashed into the medical centre.
“We’re still considering all options, whether it’s a medical event, whether it’s a mechanical event, whether it’s driver error, speed, fatigue, drugs or alcohol,” McEvoy said.
McEvoy said the pedestrian who was killed was sadly in the “wrong place at the wrong time”.
”It’s really tragic that one [pedestrian] has lost his life, but really fortunate that there’s not multiple,” he said.
An investigation into the crash continues.
