A 14-year-old girl from Nylstroom is in intensive care, after she and her 13-year-old friend were injured after being flung from a quad bike when it hit a rock.

The teens weren't wearing helmets or any other protective gear.

Melissa Beytel, a Grade 8 pupil at Nylstroom High School, is being treated for - among other things - bleeding on the brain at Akasia hospital, north of Pretoria.

She also has a broken collar bone, skull and nose, a long, deep cut on her left side, and her left eye is severely swollen and bruised. Beytel also has several scrapes on her body.

André Beytel, 46, her father, said the girls had been riding on Melissa's Raptor 350cc quad bike on Sunday afternoon.

"I bought the bike for her after she won third place at karate championships in Los Angeles in 2005."

Melissa was visiting her friend, Chereese de Villiers, at the De Villiers family's farm in Vaalwater. According to Beytel, the girls had been driving relatively fast on a gravel road when one of the quad bike's front wheels hit a rock.

"The impact threw the girls off the bike and into the air. A married couple, both doctors, came upon the girls after the accident and treated them until an ambulance arrived," said Beytel.

According to him the ambulance first took the girls to Warm Baths hospital in Bela-Bela, but that hospital doesn't have the equipment to perform brain scans.

"They were transferred to Montana hospital in Pretoria that same day. However, at that hospital there was no neurosurgeon available, and at 03:00 on Monday morning, they were transferred to Akasia hospital," said Beytel.

Bonita de Villiers, Chereese's mother, said her daughter has been recovering at home since Tuesday. She broke her wrist in the accident.

"We thank the Lord that she wasn't seriously injured," said De Villiers.

[Story by Virginia Keppler, Beeld]