'Please don't take risks on the ROADS THIS SUMMER'

KATIE WANTS TO PREVENT OTHERS FROM LIVING HER NIGHTMARE

- Sarah Marinos

On December 24, 2020, Katie Dokmanovic's 18-year-old son, Nicholas, was killed when he was a passenger in a speeding car that hit a power pole.

After Christmas Eve dinner with his family, Nicholas Hoenselaars, 18, asked if he could go out for dessert with friends. Katie remembers asking Nicholas not to be too late.

“I asked him to message me when he got to where he was going – the usual things you tell your kid before they leave the house,” Katie, from south-west Sydney, tells New Idea.

“Nicholas had spent the day with his girlfriend while my Mum and I had prepared food for Christmas Day. I was tired, so after Nicholas’ friend picked him up, I went to bed.”

At 1.38am on Christmas Day, Katie’s mobile rang. It was Nicholas’ girlfriend Natasa.

“She said ‘I’m at Liverpool Hospital. Nick’s been in a car crash… he’s dead,’” Katie recalls. “But nobody at the hospital would tell her anything and she wasn’t exactly sure what had happened.