Shortland Street - Carmen after the truck crash

On the 22 December 1995 episode of Shortland Street, a truck ploughed into the clinic’s reception, causing carnage. The first excerpt is taken from the follow-up episode, which screened on Christmas Day. Nurse Carmen (Theresa Healey), having apparently only received minor bruising, suddenly collapses. The second clip, from the next instalment, sees her wheeled into hospital — shortly before she died from a brain haemorrhage, and delivered a whopper of a soap shock. In 2002 longtime Shortland scribe Steven Zanoski named the truck crash among his favourite Street stories. 

...my jaw hit the floor. I ran outside to share the tragic news to my mother: Carmen Roberts, quick-witted nurse and beloved new mum, had just died .“But what about the baby?” my mother asked, in a tone of voice that was unusually serious.

– Tara Ward on the day Carmen died, The Spinoff, 17 December 2015

Key Cast & Crew

Michael Galvin

As: Chris Warner

Craig Parker

As: Guy Warner

Theresa Healey

As: Carmen Roberts

Robyn Malcolm

As: Nurse Ellen Crozier

Steven Zanoski

Storyliner