Taylor Swift megafan, 16, was listening to superstar when she died in crash on way to Australia Eras show: report
An Australian Taylor Swift megafan was jamming out to the superstar’s songs with her mom and younger sister during their 17-hour journey to see her perform live when they got into the horrific crash that left the teen dead and her sibling fighting for her life.
Mieka Pokarier, 16, had her iPad open to the Taylor Swift playlist she painstakingly created when their car collided with a semi-truck in Dubbo, near Sydney, on their way from Queensland to the opening night of Swift’s “Eras” tour in Melbourne, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Pokarier was pronounced dead at the scene, while her 10-year-old sister Freya Pokarier, 10, was airlifted to Westmead Hospital, where she remains in a medically induced coma and suffering from brain injuries, broken leg and damaged pelvis, the outlet reported.
The girls’ mother, Kim Litchfield, sustained minimal injuries and was taken to Dubbo Hospital in stable condition.
“It should have been a dream road trip,” Mieka Pokarier’s godmother Karleigh Fox told the Daily Telegraph.
“They had been talking about this since before they got the tickets. They spent eight hours refreshing their screens hoping to score tickets and were over the moon to land tickets at both Melbourne and Sydney venues.”
The trio was a mere 19 miles short of their overnight accommodation in Dubbo when the crash happened, Fox revealed.
Pokarier was in the front seat at the time of the crash, according to 9 News.
The Swiftie’s life had been dedicated to the billionaire songstress, from blasting her songs nonstop to even naming her kitty Mr. Perfectly Fine, after a bonus track from 2021’s “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” Fox added.
The shy gymnast’s favorite album, though, was “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” — which is being played “on repeat” inside little Freya’s hospital room, according to family friend Fern Burgertown, who started a GoFundMe for the family. The page has more than $26,000 AUD, roughly $16,300 USD, for the devastated family.
Freya had been excited to attend the concert to update her merch collection, as she has outgrown her original “1989” T-shirts, the Daily Telegraph reported.
While she is expected to remain in a coma for a few more days to give her body time to heal, her family and friends have been telling her about all the merchandise they’ve seen concertgoers buying, according to Burgertown.
Freya isn’t “out of the woods yet,” as the little girl faces “risks of swelling in the brain and infection” that could be life-threatening, Burgertown said.
The preteen has already undergone eight blood transfusions and was given the blood products on the way to the hospital, the family friend added.
“The real work will begin of course when she is conscious and we will then see a whole lot of anxiety and distress from her and potential carer burnout for Mama, as that’s the person our girl is going to want the most,” she wrote.
Litchfield, who has been released from the hospital, has reunited with her younger daughter at the facility, where she and her husband and older daughter are as well.
The family is currently staying at the Ronald McDonald House while Freya continues being treated as their home on the Gold Coast is more than 500 miles away.
