EXCLUSIVE: Brother, 12 and sister, 10, witness their mother, 45, die in horrific crash with a truck while driving home from swimming lessons – as their father reveals the devastating moment he told them ‘mum isn’t coming back’
- Mum of two, 45, killed in a horror head-on crash with a B-double in regional SA
- Mhai Hashemi was driving children home from swimming lessons on Tuesday
- Son 12, and daughter, 10, injured in crash in South Australia’s Riverland region
- Grieving father said children’s tears were ‘unstoppable’ knowing their mum died
- Fatality brings Sth Aus road toll to 28 this year compared to 17 this time in 2018
A mother-of-two killed in an horrific head-on collision on a South Australian highway was driving her children home from swimming lessons when the crash happened.
Mhai Hashemi, 45, was killed instantly when her car slammed into a B-double just before 7.30pm on Tuesday night.
Her son Arian, 12 and daughter, Sayde, 10, were in the back seat at the time, and were badly injured.
Mrs Hashemi’s distraught husband Sayed told Daily Mail Australia he was forced to break the devastating news to his children after the crash that ‘mum wouldn’t be coming home’.
‘Their crying was unstoppable,’Mr Hashemi said.
‘It’s going to be hard for them,’ he said. ‘[They’re] very sad, they’re very attached to their mum, they’re missing their mother deeply.’
The farmer said his wife was humble, helpful, fully involved with the local community and had a ‘strong character’.
‘She was a role model as a woman in this small country town,’ he said.
Mhai Hashemi, 45, was killed in a horror crash on Tuesday night while driving her son and daughter home from their swimming lesson. The children are recovering form physical injuries
The family was driving back to their home in Cadell, South Australia, when their car (pictured) slammed into a B-double and Mrs Hashemi was killed
Emergency crews were called to the intersection of Sturt and Old Sturt Highways in South Australia’s Riverland region when the crash happened.
Mr Hashemi said his children were ‘very attached to their mother’ and their crying was ‘unstoppable’ when he broke the news to them that she had died
The two children were taken to Berri Hospital for observation and treatment to non-life threatening injuries, but Mr Hashemi said they will be transferred to a hospital in Adelaide, to receive treatment for ‘cracks in their vertebrae’.
The truck driver was not injured in the crash, which destroyed Mrs Hashemi’s car.
Mr Hashemi said the man has so far not been charged or arrested over the incident, and returned to work today.
‘I asked police what happened to the truck driver,’ he said. ‘They said he went back to Adelaide for work, but my wife…
‘Yesterday was just yesterday [for the driver] and today he went back to work.’
The intersection where the crash occurred, near Barmera, was closed for most of the night while Major Crash Investigators attended the scene before the roads reopened early on Wednesday morning.
The fatality occurred at the intersection of the Sturt and Old Sturt Highways (pictured), considered a dangerous stretch of road by locals
The tragedy occurred on a dangerous stretch of road, according to a local who commented on the South Australia Police Facebook page.
‘I know exactly where it is and have seen a few near misses myself,’ the woman commented.
The woman’s death brings South Australia’s road toll to 28 this year, compared to 17 at the same time in 2018.
The tragedy ended a horror day on the Sturt Highway in the region after an earlier two car crash near the South Australian/Victorian border closed the road for three hours.
The state’s road toll to 28 this year, compared to 17 at the same time in 2018