‘My kids are gone’: pram crash horror shatters parents
Farid Farid and Duncan Murray |
Sok Ram is reeling from the numbness of losing her two young children, who were struck by a SUV on a busy road just metres from their home.
She had been accompanied by her 14-month-old son Harry, who was in a pram, while picking up her five-year-old daughter Katherine from school in Cabramatta in southwestern Sydney.
Her two children were killed as they were crossing a street about 3.15pm on Wednesday.
“Two of them gone, my kids are gone,” she told AAP on Thursday, sobbing uncontrollably with tears rolling down her face.
“Last night I felt very cold. My heart and my body – I am hurt everywhere.”
Standing outside her family home as trucks and cars sped past, Ms Ram said the tragedy still didn’t feel real.
“I can’t believe it,” she said.
Paramedics treated the children at the scene and they were rushed to hospital in a critical condition but died shortly after, police said.
A 56-year-old man who was driving the car was uninjured and taken to hospital for mandatory testing.
Katherine was in her first year of kindergarten and was due to receive an award from her school for her reading and writing achievements on Friday.
Ms Ram, 33, said her daughter was a generous child who did not want gifts but just wanted to be surrounded by her family.
“I gave my kids everything, the big one (Katherine) she said ‘Mummy and family more important than iPad’,” she said, as she was comforted by her husband and a friend.
She said her daughter had dreams of growing up to become an artist or a teacher while her toddler son – who had just learned how to walk – loved kicking a small soccer ball around.
The children’s father Vun Dy Tha, 42, was at work when his wife called him and told him of the accident that claimed his children’s lives.
“In my mind, I thought it was only one kid but it was both of them because my son, the little one, always wants to come with us in the pram,” he told AAP.
“They are beautiful kids.”
He explained the car had suddenly stopped, giving Ms Ram the impression she could cross the street safely, but then it struck them with children trapped underneath.
A number of witnesses tried to rescue the children but were unsuccessful, Acting Superintendent Timothy Calman said on Wednesday.
”We’ve had a number of motorists that actually stopped and collectively have moved the vehicle onto its side, tipped the car over in order to get one of the children from underneath the vehicle, and other bystanders have assisted with CPR,” he said.
Grandmother Pauline Rio, 60, used to walk sometimes with Ms Ram and the children on her way to pick up her six-year-old grandson from the same school.
She laid a floral wreath comprised of yellow flowers that she arranged on a table outside her home metres away from the crash site.
“I feel sorry for the family and especially the kids because the daughter goes to school together with my grandson,” she said.
Premier Chris Minns said everyone was heartbroken by the loss of the two young lives.
“This is one of those tragedies that hit the community incredibly hard,” he said.
A fundraiser set up to support the parents reached nearly $45,000 in donations by Thursday morning.
Mr Tha, a stoic Cambodian migrant, arrived in Australia 23 years ago.
He settled with his family came in Cabramatta, which is one of the most diverse local government areas in the country and home to several South-east Asian communities.
NSW Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.
AAP