A California beauty queen has spoken out for the first time after surviving a horrific crash in which two young boys took their parents’ car and plowed into her.

Kiara Bowling, 32, returned to the Oakland intersection where she nearly lost her life while walking her best friend’s dog in August.

“I feel blessed to be here and to still be able to walk,” Bowling said.

“It feels good that I survived this, because this looks like a situation where an incident happened that was very traumatic and probably didn’t have any survivors.”

The near-fatal crash unfolded when two brothers, aged 4 and 6, took their parents’ car keys while their parents were asleep. 

According to witnesses and police, the pair drove at high speed — with one child steering while the other reportedly worked the pedals — sideswiping another vehicle before slamming directly into Bowling and crashing into a home’s fence.

The impact left Bowling unconscious on the pavement with life-threatening injuries, including multiple brain bleeds, a traumatic brain injury and facial fractures. 

The dog, Grizzly, was also hurt after being thrown by the collision, but survived.

Because of the severe brain trauma, Bowling has no memory of the crash itself.

“I don’t have any recollection of this area, when it happened,” she said. “I really don’t have recollection until the middle of September. In the hospital, my doctors had to let me know what happened.”

Lavelle Shah-Marquis, a bystander who rushed to her aid alongside others that morning, reconnected with Bowling via FaceTime and described the sheer force of the collision.

“You didn’t have enough time to even get out the way,” Shah-Marquis said. “The car came so fast behind you and hit you and the dog. You went flying and you landed right where you were and that was pretty much it. Then you went unconscious.”

As Bowling lay unresponsive on the asphalt, bystanders rushed in to keep her alive, performing CPR and whispering words of comfort until paramedics arrived.

When she revisited that very intersection this week, several of those same good Samaritans, including Rita Macina, stepped forward to embrace her.

“There was already somebody giving her CPR, and so I was just talking to her,” Macina said. “I told her: ‘You are going to be OK,’ and then a tear came out. I think sometimes people forget that they need to hear people, and everybody is trying to do things, and I said, ‘She can hear us.’”

Before the crash, Bowling — crowned Ms. California Regency International for 2026 — was on track to finish her final semester at California State University, East Bay in December, and relinquish her crown a couple months later to pursue a career in law.

Instead, the collision left her in critical care for months, forcing her to relearn how to walk, talk and eat. While doctors estimate her recovery could take up to two years, Bowling confirmed she harbors no bitterness toward the young children who struck her.

Asked if she has forgiven them, Bowling said: “Yes, I do forgive them.”

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