The son of a British couple killed alongside their friend in a horror crash in South Africa has spoken of his grief as neighbours described how the pair were ‘devoted to each other, charity and God’.
Chris Naylor, 58, and his scholar wife Susanna Naylor, died when the vehicle they were in plunged from a bridge into a river along the famous 450 mile Garden Route from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth on Monday.
Their friend, mother-of-four Miranda Harris, 66, was also killed in the crash, while Miranda’s husband Peter, 67, was seriously injured.
Speaking from his family’s terraced home in Oxfordshire today, Chris and Susanna’s son Samuel, 28, told Mailonline: ‘We are still coming to terms with what has happened.’
Devastated neighbours said the couple ‘devoted their lives to others.’
The two married couples had been on their way to an airport to fly back to England after driving to Port Elizabeth on Monday afternoon when their vehicle crashed over a bridge and plummeted 75 ft into a river below.
Three of the four Britons involved in the crash were highly respected Christian charity bosses and the other was a senior teacher at elite £17,000-a-year Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford, Oxon.
Peter Harris (left), 67, survived the crash but his wife Miranda (centre), 66, was killed along with close friend Chris Naylor (right), 58, and his wife Susanna
Crash victims Susanna Naylor, 54, and husband Chris Naylor, 58, who both died in the accident in South Africa
The upturned wreckage of the Toyota station wagon lies half submerged after crashing over the edge of the Swartkops Bridge in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Samuel Naylor today thanked well-wishers for their condolences, and said he was not planning to go to South Africa because a family member who worked there would be handling arrangements for the repatriation of the bodies to the UK.
Samuel, who has a younger sister Chloe and younger brother Joshua, said they had been liaising closely with the charity his father worked for as neighbour paid tribute to the couple’s dedication to their work.
The Naylor’s three grown-up children Chloe, Joshua and Samuel also issued a joint statement in the wake of their parents’ death, in which they spoke of their pain while describing their parents as inspirational.
The statement said: ‘Following the loss of our parents, Chris and Susanna, the pain we have felt in the last few days is hard to describe. We as their children are fiercely proud of them and everything they stood for in their lives.
‘We particularly remember their friendships, their generosity, deep kindness and empathy, love for others, courage, and their life-long faith and work. They were inspirational in every way.
‘Since the sad news we have been together supporting each other and surrounded by the love and support of family, church and friends. We are also so grateful to A Rocha and to Christchurch Cathedral School for giving opportunities to each of them to do what they loved, and for remembering them so well in their public statements.
‘At this time, we ask that the privacy of the family be respected.’
Neighbours in the quiet Cotswold village Shipton under Wychwood spoke of their shock and sadness at the loss of the couple.
‘It is just so sad. They were devoted to each other, the charity and God,’ said a neighbour.
‘It is going to take sometime to realise they will not ever be hear. It is such a tragedy.’
Another neighbour added: ‘We heard the news the other day and couldn’t believe it.
‘They devoted their lives to others. Sometimes life is very unfair’
The Naylors lived in a picture postcard terraced home made from honey coloured Cotswold stone and built over 200 years ago.
Former clergyman Peter Harris, who set up the charity A Rocha International with his wife Miranda Harris, was the only one of the group to survive.
Car crash victim Susanna Naylor, 54, pictured giving a science lesson. The Naylor’s three grown-up children Chloe, Joshua and Samuel issued a statement in the wake of their parents’ death, in which they spoke of their pain while describing their parents as inspirational
Peter and the driver are critical but stable after being rushed to St George’s Hospital in Port Elizabeth. They were pulled still breathing from the wreckage of their semi-submerged silver station wagon.
Tragically, his three friends were killed by blunt force trauma and did not drown in the Swartkops River below. The postmortem which was completed this morning showed that Susanna Naylor, 54, husband Chris, 58, and Miranda Harris, 66, died from either the impact with the barrier or on landing.
HeraldLIVE said the findings were confirmed to them by an official who declined to be named but said the postmortem report had been handed to the South African Police to release details.
Two of Peter’s children have since arrived in Port Elizabeth to be by his bedside but have declined to talk to the media. It is understood the driver Thando Kalipa, 55, is making a good recovery.
He is said to have told police that he suspected a car driving behind them had hit their trailer loaded with the British tourist’s luggage being carried behind the Toyota double cab station wagon.
It is thought the impact with the trailer and the weight shift caused the station wagon to hit the barrier and flip over the edge and fall into the river below and detectives are appealing for witnesses.
The local media quoted police sources saying that detectives are now investigating a possible triple culpable homicide case but police spokesman Colonel Sibongile Soci would not comment further.
The foursome had been enjoying a 10 day combined adventure and working holiday in South Africa visiting A Rocha field groups as well as taking time out to enjoy wildlife safaris.
They had begun the journey home when their double cab Toyota station wagon and luggage trailer was in collision with a Chrysler Neon as they crossed the Swartkops Bridge.
The two vehicles were travelling in the same direction over the two lane 300m bridge when it is thought a gust of wind blew the British vehicle’s trailer into a car driving alongside them.
The resulting impact flipped the station wagon with the terrified Harris’s and Naylor’s inside over the crash barrier and plunged it 75 feet into the river below smashing onto its roof.
Fellow motorists abandoned their cars and rushed down the embankment and helped by locals waded out into the chest deep water and pulled all the occupants from the vehicle.
Peter Harris, 67, who was left in a serious condition following the crash in Port Elizabeth, South Africa
The Swartkops River bridge in Port Elizabeth where three British tourists were killed when their vehicle plunged over the edge
Tragically mother-of-three Susanna Naylor who is Head of Science at an Oxfordshire prep school and a former charity worker with A Rocha and her husband Chris were killed.
Friend Peter Harris who survived was a former English teacher at £36,000 a year Christ’s Church school in Horsham, Sussex, and a former Anglican clergyman based in Liverpool.
His wife Miranda helped him set up the A Rocha charity – which means ‘The Rock’ – which opened their first field study conservation project in Portugal 36 years ago in 1983.
Their worldwide Christian organisation has spread to over 20 countries including the USA, Brazil, South America, the Middle East, Australia, Canada and Africa and is based in the UK.
The charity has an income of £5m a year from government grants, trust funds, donations and churches and calls itself an ‘international network of environmental organisations with a Christian ethos’
The charity has 145 employees and a worldwide network of 850 volunteers and is seeking out new countries to work in.
The Harris’s had spent their life since 1983 growing the charity and moving around the world with it promoting its work living in many different countries before settling down again in the UK.
Among their many projects are the Captive Elephant Welfare Programme in India, the Atewa Forest Project in Ghana, the Kenya Bird Map Project and helping tackle the fires in the Amazon.
They live in the village of West Lavington, Wilts, in a house chosen to be close to the homes of their 4 grown up children.
Victim Chris Naylor of Oxford, Oxon, is a former science teacher who holds a Masters Degree from Cambridge University. He joined the charity in 1997 and was appointed CEO in 2010.
Victims Peter Harris, 67, who survived the crash and his wife Miranda, 66 who was killed. Harris is a former English teacher at £36,000 a year Christ’s Church school in Horsham, Sussex, and a former Anglican clergyman based in Liverpool
Car crash victim Peter Harris, 67, is an ornithologist and is pictured here with a bird of prey
His brilliant scholar wife Susanna earned an MA in Medicine at Cambridge University where she met him then moved south to graduate with a BA in Clinical Medicine at Oxford University.
She then graduated with an MA in Advanced Educational Practice at the Oxford Brookes University which enabled her to become a teacher and she married university sweetheart Chris in 1987.
The devoted couple had been married for 32 years and after both gaining their degrees moved abroad to Kuwait to become teachers but fled after Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invaded in 1990.
When the war was over they returned to Kuwait then moved around the Middle East teaching in Jordan and Lebanon before returning to the UK in 1997 to join up with the A Rocha charity.
However Susanna missed teaching and became Head of Science at Kitebrook Prep School in the Cotswolds and had just moved to the same post at Christ Church Cathedral School when she was killed.
The historic boys school was founded by King Henry VIII in 1546 and provides choristers for English cathedrals.
The four best friends who had known each other over 25 years were being driven to the airport by a driver from the Kuzoko Lodge in the Addo Elephant National Park near Port Elizabeth.
They had spent two nights at the 15000 hectare game reserve which boasts the Big 5 of lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino and elephant enjoying daily game drives and walking safaris.
They were on the short drive to the airport when tragedy struck on the 300m long bridge over the Swartkops River below.
Eastern Cape Department of Transport spokesperson Khuselwa Rantjie said the accident happened at 11.45am on Monday and a case of culpable homicide had been opened.
The three victims were pulled from the wreckage and declared dead at the scene by a doctor and the two survivors were stretchered back up to the road and rushed to hospital.
A Rocha International spokesman said: ‘Peter and Miranda Harris, co-founders of A Rocha, and Chris Naylor who was our CEO and his wife Susanna were involved in a horrific car accident in South Africa.
‘Miranda, Chris and Susanna did not survive. Peter and the driver of the car are being treated at a local hospital and are in a stable condition and we await further news.
‘Above all, their families and friends are held in our prayers. We know that this comes as a profound shock to everyone in the A Rocha Family and to many others around the world’.
Peter Harris, 67, who survived a horrific road accident in South Africa in which his wife Miranda Harris, 66, was killed
Susanna Naylor, 54, pictured with husband Chris Naylor, 58, both of whom were killed in the crash. The four best friends who had known each other over 25 years were being driven to the airport by a driver from the Kuzoko Lodge in the Addo Elephant National Park near Port Elizabeth
An A Rocha member in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where they have a centre and who asked not to be named said: ‘I met the four of them last week and they were wonderful people.
‘They said they were on a dream holiday although it was also a working trip and they said they were finishing it with a trip to the Addo Elephant National Park to see the Big 5.
‘The co-founder Peter said he was nuts on wild birds and said he was looking forward to photographing them at Addo and told me there were over 400 species living wild there.
‘I cannot believe that three of the nicest people have been taken from us like this and I am praying for Peter to survive. These people were all devout Christians devoted to God.
‘It can really make you wonder when people like them are taken from us in such tragic circumstances and we are all saying prayers for their children and friends in the UK’ she said.
A spokesman for Kuzuko Lodge where the four had stayed expressed their condolences to the two families involved.
The Naylor’s have three grown up children Chloe, Joshua and Sam and the Harris’s have four grown up children who all live near their Wiltshire home and have six grand children.
The three bodies will be flown home to the UK after post mortems have been carried out to establish if they were killed by the impact with the water or from subsequent drowning.
A Foreign Office spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We are supporting the families of two British couples following a car accident in Port Elizabeth in which three people died and one was left seriously injured. Our staff are in contact with the South African authorities.’