Crash survivor uses TikTok to tell her story

Harriet Barnsley and her best friend Rebecca McManus were hit by a car going at 101mph back in 2014, which killed Rebecca instantly

"Becky died instantly, and apparently I was found screaming. But I don't remember it and I'm glad I don't remember."

On a sunny Saturday evening in May 2014, Harriet Barnsley and her best friend Rebecca McManus were at a bus stop on the Hagley Road in Birmingham, near Bearwood.

They were on their way to a hen do and were both bridesmaids for the bride-to-be.

While they were waiting for the bus, two cars came speeding around the corner, after their drivers had decided to start racing each other.

Sukvinder Mannan was travelling at 101mph, but he lost control and veered off course, smashing into the bus shelter where the two 21-year-olds were standing.

Rebecca (right) and Harriet were both due to be bridesmaids at a friend's wedding

"We bounced off the car three times and were thrown 50 metres into the park behind the bus stop," Harriet said.

Ms McManus, who had just finished a three-year English Literature and Creative Writing degree at the University of East Anglia, suffered catastrophic injuries and died at the scene.

Harriet and Rebecca had first met when they were five years old at primary school. They went to Irish dancing classes and Brownies together, with their relationship remaining close over the years.

"She was so originally herself and she didn't care what we all thought, and that was such a powerful thing to be around," Harriet said.

"It's difficult when someone's died not to put them on a pedestal, but she was that good."

Harriet and Rebecca had been best friends since primary school

Harriet, who had finished her own degree in philosophy just one day before the crash, was thrown into a four-week coma and left with a litany of injuries.

Now, 11 years later, the 32-year-old is still enduring physical and mental symptoms, which will afflict her for the rest of her life.

She is now making TikTok videos about the impact the crash had on her life, her grief for her friend, and issues regarding road safety, as well as writing an autobiography called Thrown - referencing how her body was thrown during the crash, and how her life was thrown off-course.

Physical and mental impact

"I was in a coma for four weeks. My parents were told I may not survive," the 32-year-old said.

"There were lots of touch and go points where I could have died."

Harriet broke numerous bones during the crash - from five or six bones in the neck to a shattered pelvis - and also suffered a bleed on the brain and a brain bruise.

"I woke up and I felt like an 80-year-old in a 21-year-old's body," she said.

"It just feels like hard work and it's what I have to contend with all the while."

She experienced short-term memory loss after the crash and could not remember that she was in hospital, how old she was, or what she had been doing with her life - meaning her parents waited to tell her that Rebecca had died.

"When I found out it was her, I was like, anyone else but Bec," she said. "Of all the people to take."

It was 40 days after the crash when Harriet was able to make her first movement

Harriet had to learn how to walk again, having severed a nerve in her left leg and broken all of the bones in it - and even today she can't move or feel her left foot.

"It's been advised many times by doctors and surgeons to amputate my leg to stop risking infection and sepsis and death," she said.

"It's a low-level worry in the back of my head all of the time that I may have to lose my leg at some point and I'm trying really hard not to."

The 32-year-old has also been left with chronic fatigue syndrome and bipolar disorder brought about by the impacts of the crash, and suffered in the past with psychosis - which she says was brought about by suppressing her grief about Rebecca's death.

"I kept going and my body and my brain just forced me to face it," she said.

"I got picked up on the motorway in the middle of the night, while I was sat there living in a delusional hallucination.

"And then I got put in hospital and sectioned and forced to face everything that I'd been running from."

Harriet now lives with chronic fatigue syndrome and organic bipolar disorder, both caused by the crash

Harriet is now using TikTok to speak about about the impact of the crash on her life and the importance of driving safely.

"Out of all the videos I've done, the most impactful are just telling the story," she said.

"People just get really angry. Such strong reactions that I don't get from just saying road safety is important."

A video she posted about her story on Tuesday has already been seen on TikTok more than 180,000 times.

The importance of road safety is still an important message for Harriet, who wonders if driverless cars would limit the number of drunk drivers, or if cars could be manufactured so they cannot go significantly over the speed limit.

She also believes speeding tickets and licence points should be taken more seriously by drivers.

"People are seeing tickets as inconveniences rather than reminders for people's safety," she said.

Harriet and Rebecca when they were children

Harriet has endured many physical and mental challenges over the last 11 years, and hopes that talking about her struggles will help other people with their mental health.

She also said it would be insulting to Rebecca if she didn't try to enjoy her life.

"Bec wouldn't want me to sit down and cry about her dying and never get back up," she said.

"That's why I want to share my story."

A quote from Philip Larkin's poem 'An Arundel Tomb' is inscribed on Rebecca's memorial bench, reflecting her love of poetry