Five members of a family who fled Afghanistan to find a new life in Australia are dead after a horrific crash on "a shocking day" on NSW roads.The 23-year-old mother tried to shelter her child as their Toyota Camry veered into the path of a water tanker on Picton Road near Wilton about 8.20am yesterday. The truck, which was travelling about 100km/h, crushed their car.
Five family members killed on Picton Rd Editorial: Crash calls for quick, concrete plan Tanker boss fears daily haulage on Picton RdHer husband and two sisters were also killed. The family, from Pendle Hill, had recently settled in Australia and were taking a day trip to Wollongong. Relatives in a separate vehicle saw the tragedy unfold.One of the sisters, Kobra Rezai, was today supposed to be in the Blue Mountains on an excursion with other women in her group at The Hills Parramatta and Holroyd Migrant Resource Centre.VIDEO: The crash sceneGroup co-ordinator Geeti Shaaheen said she spoke to Ms Rezai over the phone the night before she died to finalise arrangements for the trip. "She was a nice lady. She used to come to my groups regularly and she was keen to learn," Ms Shaaheen said. Ms Rezai, who was in her 40s and had been in Australia for three or four years, was studying for her learner's licence, taking English lessons and also taking computer classes, Ms Shaaheen said. Metropolitan Crash Unit acting commander Sergeant Brett Samuel said investigators wanted to speak to the driver of a small white van who might have seen the accident. The van was travelling west along Picton Road at the time of the crash, Sergeant Samuel said. Hours later, a crash near Grafton claimed the lives of two women while three passengers, believed to be their teenage daughters, suffered minor injuries. Also yesterday, a motorcyclist collided with a car at high speed near Kempsey, and had to have an arm and a leg amputated.Yesterday's seven deaths take this year's road toll to 436 - almost 120 more than last year's toll. The three-year average for road deaths is 371.The state's most senior traffic officer, Assistant Commissioner John Hartley, said it had been a ''horrific day … It's just a shocking, shocking day, and I can't remember a day as bad as this in 15 years".An Ambulance NSW paramedic, David Morris, described the Wilton crash as "one of those things you never want to turn up to". The car was pushed about 200 metres along the road after being struck, and was so mangled that it took the police hours to determine how many people were inside. Emergency services workers had to cut off the roof to retrieve the bodies, revealing the Pendle Hill family and the young child in a capsule.''It's something that no humans should have to see. The woman was trying to shelter her baby by putting her hands over the top the baby,'' Mr Hartley said.He said it was believed the family's car went out of control after it clipped another vehicle travelling in the same direction on a dual carriageway. ''Somehow they have touched each other … and the vehicle has left the roadway, then spun back across the road and into the path of the oncoming truck,'' he said.Picton Road, between the F6 and the Hume Highway, has claimed 21 lives since 2000.The 56-year-old driver of the tanker in the Picton Road crash, from Wilton, was uninjured. smh.com.au
