Celebrating her birthday in hospital. "I remember being dragged and screaming out, 'It's not stopping! It's not stopping!' "Finally, I remember seeing the gutter next to me. The first thing I did was move my neck and my toes and I could move them so I thought, 'I'll be fine.' I said, 'I'm OK. I just want to stand up."' The 33-year-old woke up in Westmead Hospital after five weeks in an induced coma following the January 11 accident. Both her legs had been broken and degloved, meaning the skin and muscles were torn down to the bone. She also suffered a lower spinal fracture. As she discovered, she was lucky to be alive. "At first the doctors didn't even know if I was going to make it through this," she said. "Then they thought I would survive but I would have to lose my left leg because I lost so much blood and skin and muscle. It was pretty much right down to the bone."

The medical team at Westmead managed to save her left leg, using muscles transferred from her abdomen and skin grafts from her back. Her right leg, while not as severely injured, has also been reconstructed with grafts from her back. "It is so amazing, the amount of work that they did," she said. "They have basically rebuilt my legs." That was only the beginning of the long, slow process of recovery. The skin grafts were followed by months of rehabilitation to allow her to walk again. The physical recovery was tough but the mental adjustment more challenging. "When I realised the extent of the injuries I cried. It was horrible. "I cried for about three days. But that was the one and only time Iasked: 'Why did it happen to me?'

"I thought, 'Well, it was meant to happen. This is my life and it was just fate.' I just had to get past that because I couldn't just sit there being miserable." And four months after the accident she is literally moving on with her life. She is out of hospital, walking independently and driving again, and has moved back to the Parramatta home she shares with her partner David. While she faces more rehabilitation, she looks forward to returning to work at Flemington this year. And she considers herself lucky. She suffered no head injuries, and she had great medical attention and emotional support from her friends, colleagues and family. She bears the prime mover's driver no ill will. "I would like to meet him, only so he doesn't feel guilty about what happened," she said. "I don't want that for him. It was just an accident. He didn't mean it. There is absolutely no animosity there ...

"When I spoke to the police, they told me he was distraught about what happened. He was crying, he was apologetic. I don't want him to feel bad about it." Such a positive attitude, along with her age and fitness, are helping her recovery. Her doctors estimate it could be one or two years before she has full use of her legs, and Constable Keles is learning to be patient. "It's really just a case now of persevering but, if anything, I have more determination now. It's happened. It can't be undone. I'm not going to let it restrict my lifestyle and I'm not going to let it stop me from doing what I was doing." She had decided to join the NSW Police Force, at 30, after a career crisis in her finance job. "I was sick and tired of the office, the nine-to-five. It was just like Groundhog Day, the same thing, the same people. I thought, there's got to be more to life." As soon as she signed up she knew it was the right decision. "I just loved it. I loved the environment. My colleagues were fantastic. Every day was different. You never knew what was going to happen."