On Friday, the quick-thinking housewife had averted what might have been a tragedy when she spotted a truck heading towards her two children and her as they walked along the sidewalk.

Pratheepa, 15, said they had been heading for breakfast at the hawker centre near their Toa Payoh Lorong 8 flat at 9.45am.

She was walking behind her mother, MrsShanti Baskaralingam, and three-year-old brother Sarugesh when a lorry and a container truck collided on the opposite side of the road.

The impact sent the lorry hurtling their way.

'My mother turned and shouted, 'Pratheepa, go away',' she recounted. 'I moved about 1m or 2m back so I wasn't hurt.

'My mother knew she might not have time to carry Sarugesh so she just pushed him away. She wanted us to be safe. She didn't care about herself,' Pratheepa said of her 32-year-old mother.

The truck hit MrsBaskaralingam, critically injuring her. She was warded at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and had an operation that lasted from 4pm to midnight.

Sarugesh suffered a hip fracture after he fell and was taken to KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

Husband and father Maheswaran Baskaralingam, 45, told The Sunday Times that he rushed to pick up his third child, Nithya, 13, from school after he was told of the accident.

Nithya said: 'He was crying and told me that my mother and siblings were involved in an accident. I thought he was joking until I saw the police cars and my mother lying a few metres from the lorry.'

When The Sunday Times visited Sarugesh yesterday, his legs were in a cast. His sisters and their maternal grandmother, who had flown in from Sri Lanka, were at his bedside.

Nithya said: 'The doctor told us that his heartbeat would accelerate when he thinks of the accident. He constantly calls for my father.'

Their father, who shuttled five to six times between the two hospitals on Friday night, returned to work on yesterday morning with a heavy heart.

'I still have to work. Who is going to pay the hospital fees?' said the chef. 'This morning, Sarugesh told me, 'Don't go work, stay with me.''

Sarugesh's condition is stable and he has been transferred to a normal ward.

His mother, whose condition is stable, remains in TTSH's surgical intensive care unit.

'The doctor said my wife's right thumb could not be found. The flesh on the right hand had also come off and the doctors had to use the flesh from her thigh for a skin graft,' MrBaskaralingam said.

'Her left arm is broken and the doctors have to insert two metal plates. She also suffered head injuries and as the lorry hit her on her side, her liver, kidneys and stomach were also injured. There was also internal bleeding,' he added.

Pratheepa said she could not sleep on Friday night.

'I was so troubled,' she said. 'I just want my mother to be all right.'

awcw@sph.com.sg