A California beauty queen is speaking publicly for the first time since surviving a devastating crash involving two young brothers who allegedly took their parents’ car and struck her.
Kiara Bowling, 32, returned to the Oakland intersection where she nearly died while walking her best friend’s dog in August.
“I feel blessed to be here and to still be able to walk,” Bowling said.
“It feels good to have survived this. From the scene, it looked like the kind of traumatic incident where no one would have made it.”
The crash occurred after the two brothers, ages 4 and 6, reportedly took their parents’ car keys while the adults were asleep.
Witnesses and police said the children sped through the area, with one allegedly steering and the other operating the pedals. The car sideswiped another vehicle before hitting Bowling and smashing through a residential fence.
The force of the collision knocked Bowling unconscious and left her with critical injuries, including several brain bleeds, a traumatic brain injury and multiple facial fractures.
Her dog, Grizzly, was also thrown by the impact and injured, but survived.
Because of the extent of her brain trauma, Bowling does not remember the crash.
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“I don’t remember this area or what happened,” she said. “I really have no recollection until the middle of September. My doctors had to explain everything to me while I was in the hospital.”
Lavelle Shah-Marquis, one of the bystanders who ran to help that morning, later reconnected with Bowling over FaceTime. She recalled how quickly the vehicle approached.
“There wasn’t enough time for you to get out of the way,” Shah-Marquis said. “The car came up behind you so fast, hit you and the dog, and sent you flying. You landed where you were, and that was it. Then you lost consciousness.”
As Bowling lay motionless in the street, bystanders performed CPR and spoke reassuringly to her while waiting for emergency crews to arrive.
When Bowling returned to the intersection this week, several of the strangers who had helped save her, including Rita Macina, greeted her with hugs.
“Someone was already performing CPR, so I stayed beside her and talked to her,” Macina said. “I told her, ‘You are going to be OK,’ and then a tear rolled down her face. People sometimes forget that patients need to hear them. Everyone was focused on helping, and I thought, ‘She can hear us.’”
Before the collision, Bowling—who was crowned Ms. California Regency International for 2026—was preparing to complete her final semester at California State University, East Bay, in December. She had planned to give up her title a few months later and begin a career in law.
Instead, the crash kept her in critical care for months and forced her to relearn basic abilities, including walking, speaking and eating. Doctors have estimated that her recovery may take as long as two years, but Bowling said she does not blame the children involved.
When asked whether she had forgiven them, Bowling replied: “Yes, I do forgive them.”
