'IT WAS AS IF TIME STOOD STILL'

He will never forget the horror of the moment he realised he'd accidentally reversed over his daughter - but today Shaun and his wife Kelly are filled with gratitude to have her home and laughing again

- BY JACQUES MYBURGH PICTURES: LUBABALO LESOLLE

HE PRESSED down hard on the Land Cruiser's accelerator, but even with the speedometer at 190km/h, it felt as if the plains of North West weren't passing quickly enough.

In the car with Shaun Steyn as he raced to get help were his wife Kelly and their 20-month-old daughter Jana - both covered in blood. Jana cried incessantly and the jersey they'd wrapped around her head to staunch the bleeding from her wound seemed to have little effect.

As the kilometres dragged by the farmer was seized with guilt, unable to stop blaming himself for accidentally driving his bakkie over the left side of his daughter's head. Hands gripped tightly on the steering wheel, he prayed she'd live.

"Now it all feels like a fever dream," says Kelly, recalling the accident and the frantic rush to hospital two months ago.

"It feels unreal that something like this happened to us. You always think it only happens to other people."

Little Jana is finally home after weeks in intensive care, followed by a period in a medical rehabilitation centre.

In rehab she was soon crawling, then walking and talking again. Kelly says she even learned a few new words there.

The little girl naps peacefully while YOU chats to her parents in the living room of their farmhouse outside Koster.

The couple's joy and relief are boundless. There was a gnawing fear Jana might have suffered brain damage, Kelly says. "We steeled ourselves for the possibility she wouldn't be her old self. But she's exactly as she was before the accident. Just as curious and friendly as always."