An Ulladulla mum who was only minutes behind Monday's horrific highway crash near Batemans Bay has begged holiday motorists to slow down and look after each other.
Laura Bullock said she hoped the accident was a wake-up call for everybody.
"Every holiday season we bag out the tourists but it's not just the tourists," she said.
CLICK HERE TO READ TRIBUTES TO THE BRIDGE FAMILY Photos from the crash scene "Everybody needs to slow down and show a little patience and courtesy."
Ms Bullock, 39, said the accident had devastated the small, coastal community.
"It's as if we are living under a huge, dark cloud - everybody feels touched by a tragedy of this magnitude," she said.
Ms Bullock, together with daughter Teagan, 7, and her mother Mary-Ann, 59, were about 20 cars behind the accident which killed Ulladulla sisters Makeely, 11, and Jordon Bridge, 13, and truck driver David Carolan of Narellan Vale.
The three died when Mr Carolan's fully-laden diesel tanker crashed into three cars at East Lynne on the Princes Hwy, just north of the Pebbly Beach turn-off.
The girls' badly burned parents, David and Debbie, were dragged free, but are fighting for their lives in two separate Sydney hospitals.
The scene of the carnage where the burning truck and car came to rest - a roadside clearing ringed with trees - had returned yesterday to a peaceful roadside rest stop with only charred grass and blackened trees, and bouquets with messages of sympathy for both families, to hint at what had taken place a few days before.
Ms Bullock said it had been a different story for them on the day.
"Luckily we had stopped a little way back for an ice-cream break at Maccas, which may very well have saved our lives," she said.
"We were probably five minutes behind the accident and all we could see were huge flames and lots of black smoke up ahead.
"A woman came up who witnessed the accident and said she saw the truck lose control when it tried to avoid an overtaking car.
"She was so adamant she said she would wait for police to arrive to pass on the information."
Ms Bullock said she and her family turned round and returned to Ulladulla by an another route.
"We had no idea how bad it was until we saw it on the news that night and Mum and I just had the sickest feeling how close we'd come to tragedy," she said.
"One of the little girls went to Teagan's school so it is very close to home."
Townspeople spoken to yesterday said it was a subject that had dominated conversation all week, considering the timing and the loss of three lives.
The most stark reminder was on Wednesday when the tanker's blackened remnants were chained to a truck and escorted through the middle of town en route to an unknown destination for examination.
Marlin Hotel bar assistant Karen Glass said everybody on the street just turned and stared.
"Some pointed it out to friends ... nobody could ignore it," she said.
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