Dad sees wife and children die in crash
A MOTHER and her two children died yesterday after a horror crash witnessed by her husband.
Officers said the woman’s car “crossed the centre white line” and collided with a lorry on the A361 near Barnstaple, Devon.
Her husband – the children’s stepfather – was in a separate vehicle and witnessed the carnage, officers said.
The family, from Milton Keynes, Bucks, were on holiday. None of the casualties has yet been named.
The tragedy comes less than 24 hours after another serious accident on the same stretch of road.
Inspector Richard McLellan, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “It would seem that a car travelling towards Barnstaple, for unknown reasons at the moment, has crossed the centre white line and hit an oncoming truck.
“Unfortunately, the family were travelling in two separate cars but travelling together along this road, so Dad was there at the scene as well.
“There is a significant amount of damage to the vehicles involved, so it takes a while for our investigators to go through the scene. We owe it to the families to establish the full facts of what’s happened as best as we can.”
The mother and one of her children died at the scene.
The other child was taken by helicopter to hospital but passed away shortly afterwards.
Three ambulances, five rapid response vehicles and the air ambulance were all scrambled to the scene just after 8.20am.
Experienced police officers described it as one of the most shocking crashes they had seen.
On Sunday, a woman and two children were rushed to hospital after a similar crash on the A361.
North Devon Conservative MP Peter Heaton-Jones branded the road “unsafe”, before adding, “People are taking too many risks because there are short overtaking lanes that suddenly merge at not much notice.
“We need major improvements to make the road safer.”