Three people are now home recovering after several days in the hospital following a head-on crash into a tractor-trailer on Route 101 in Temple a few days after Christmas.

Melanie Larssen and Robert Martin of Fitzwilliam were driving home after picking up Larssen’s 14-year-old daughter from her father’s on Dec. 23, when Martin lost control of their car on a snowy road, sliding into the opposite lane and oncoming traffic, Larssen said in an interview with the Ledger-Transcript.

“We picked her up at 2:50, and that’s where it started snowing,” Larssen recalled. “We were maybe 10 minutes up the road and the road was already covered.”

Martin, who was driving, decided to take Route 101 rather than their usual route in hopes the main roads would be treated. He said he was going significantly under the speed limit due to the snow, but at one point the vehicle began to slide.

“All we really remember is we started sliding, felt the back end of the SUV go out, and when I looked up I saw the truck coming towards us,” Larrsen said.

She said that for part of the slide, the car was sideways, with the passengers’ side, containing Larssen and her daughter, at risk of being t-boned, but Martin was able to correct enough for a head-on crash.

While the truck driver was uninjured, Larssen, her daughter, and Martin, all sustained serious injuries.

Larssen’s first vertebra from the skull was broken in three places, along with the bottom of her sternum and her left ankle. Her right ankle and foot were also injured.

Martin broke his nose from the impact of the airbag, and the ball of his left hip socket broke through his hip bone. While he had emergency surgery on his hip immediately following the crash, he will need a follow-up to replace his hip in the near future.

Larssen’s daughter had some internal injuries from her seatbelt, including a laceration on her colon and internal bleeding, as well as a broken notch on one of her vertebra.

Larssen said the immediate aftermath of the accident is somewhat of a blur, but she remembers getting out of the car, helping her daughter out of the car, and then collapsing as her ankles gave out. Martin was pinned in the car.

“I laid on the ground, and I couldn’t move. My neck wouldn’t move,” recalled Larssen. “Rob was pinned. Immediately, bystanders were all over us.”

Larssen said that one Samaritan, in particular, helped her and her daughter, putting her daughter into her own car for warmth, and placing her jacket over Larssen.

“I would hug her if I could,” Larssen said.

At the same time, Martin kept trying to get out of the vehicle to see if Larssen and her daughter were okay. Larssen said bystanders initially tried to convince him to stay put, but seeing that he was trying to get out on his own, helped him to push his seat back enough for him to exit.

Larssen said she remembers more vaguely emergency responders arriving, and was told she and Martin spoke to a police officer about the crash, but said neither she nor Martin remember that interaction.

All three occupants of the car were taken to Elliot Hospital in Manchester. Larssen’s daughter had surgery that day for her internal injuries, Martin the following day for his hip. All three were released that weekend to convalesce at home.

“I have no idea, none of us do, how we made it out alive,” Larssen said. “It’s damn near a Christmas miracle.”

Larssen said she and Martin are able to get around with walkers, and are being assisted by family. It will be a long road of recovery for the couple, she said, with Larssen out of work for at least the next three months, and Martin for the next year. Larssen is a behavioral tech, and Martin works in property management.

The couple have a GoFundMe page, at gofund.me/7e1b1831b to help support them through their recovery.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.

Editor’s note: This article was updated to correct the date of the crash and remove the term “fishtailing.” Melanie Larssen did not require surgery.