Poppy Crozier’s mum Asha shares the heartache of losing her ‘kind, gentle’ teenager in a horror crash

The heartbroken mum of a “kind and gentle” teenager killed when her car was struck head-on while driving to her rural hometown has told of her family’s – and daughter’s dog – ongoing anguish.

“Kind and gentle” Poppy Crozier was doing nothing wrong as she headed back to her rural hometown in the state’s southeast for the weekend.

At Murray Bridge the first year Adelaide Uni agricultural student spoke to her mum, Asha, telling her that the road trip she’d made so many times before was going well.

Tragically, soon after Mrs Crozier, 50, and husband Charlie, 54, who farm at Sherwood, near Keith, would learn their beloved youngest daughter had died, after her car was struck head-on on the Dukes Highway at Ki Ki, in an accident the 19-year-old had no chance of avoiding.

That was in May last year and her loving parents, big sister Edwina, 22, and adored 10-year-old beaglier Olive, are still struggling to adjust to life without the “cheeky” teenager.

“Pops got Olive for her 11th birthday and the pair was incredibly close … Olive absolutely misses her and when she is stressed or anxious, we will find her on Poppy’s bed,” Mrs Crozier said.

Poppy Crozier (right) was tragically killed, aged 19, in a crash on the Dukes Highway at Ki Ki. She is pictured here with big sister Edwina, mum Asha and dad Charlie. Picture: supplied

The heartbroken mum, who works in the education sector, yesterday shared her family’s anguish at losing a precious child as The Advertiser and Sunday Mail launched its new road safety campaign, Arrive Alive.

“I think we’re fundamentally changed … that heartbreak is just part of who we are now,” she said.

“There’s not a day that goes by without moments in which you are desperately wishing that Pops was with us, or experiencing things with us.

“You don’t ever, ever want to kind of imagine that this is your reality, it is just one of those horrific things that you don’t get to choose.

“But it is our reality now and will be forever.

“We’ve lost her and have to accept that it is what it is for us and find how to move on in a way that we honour her and try and help people not to be in the same situation, so that we can do some good.

“The way I see us being able to honour her is to be the people that she knew, and that means holding true to our values as a family, the things we believed in and who she knew of us.

“I say, we’ll never be okay with what happened but I think we are managing … we’re in a place where we can function and be part of the world again, whereas for those first few weeks and months, we weren’t part of the world.”

Poppy was given her beloved beaglier, Olive, on her 11th birthday. Picture: supplied by the family

Poppy Crozier loved the beach and her pet 10-year-old beaglier, Olive. Picture: supplied by the family

She says milestones are hardest with the family not looking forward to the upcoming festive season.

“We knew what her goals and her aspirations were … so now, there are times and places that act as markers for those things that might have been, or could have been,” she said.

“Last Christmas was awful but we had incredibly kind and generous people who made it the best they could for us. beyond our grief, we can’t give what we previously gave and, at times, it is quite distressing (but) you just don’t have the capacity because you’re processing something that is so traumatic.

“I think in time those things will get easier, but there’s still a very significant reminder of what’s not here … I’ll go to call her., or I’ll go to tell her something, or see something and think, ‘Pops would adore that’, or ‘Oh gosh, I need to let Pops know that’.”

In May this year Jake Frederick Stock, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of causing death by dangerous driving after he overtook two semi-trailers before colliding head-on with Poppy’s vehicle, pushing her into the path of one of the trucks.

He was sentenced to three years, two months and eight days.

“There was nothing intentional about harming Poppy … we don’t hate him, we hate what he did,” Mrs Crozier said.

”We were exceptionally grateful that he pleaded and it didn’t get to trial, we really respect him for doing that.”

Mrs Crozier recalls her and her husband’s “utter anguish and torture” of learning through social media there had been a major accident on the highway their daughter was travelling on but being unable to contact her.

“We couldn’t get a hold of her which was incredibly uncharacteristic … she was organised and conscientious and good at communicating with us, so I think we both instinctively knew,” she said.

“It was absolutely horrendous.”

Fearing the worst, Mrs Crozier contacted Edwina who was in Melbourne but as she was on the phone letting her know there’d been an accident and they couldn’t get hold of her little sister there was a knock at the door.

It was the police.

“Literally, as we were on the phone to her, the police knocked on the door … (that) was incredibly distressing for her,” Mrs Crozier said.

One of the Crozier family’s last photos of their beloved daughter. Picture: Supplied by the family

Poppy Crozier with one of working dogs on the family farm. Picture: Sarah Cunningham

She says Poppy’s tragic death has been felt beyond close family and friends, the heartache rippling through the community.

“I think that ripple comes from the fact this could have been any one of us, any of our sons or daughters … she was doing something really regular and routine which she’d had done numerous times before and this horrifically tragic accident happened,” she said.

“I think that did really impact the community … almost a bit of grief at innocence lost.

“Her grandparents, in particular, have found it incredibly hard to make sense of (the fact) their grandchild was just going about her everyday life; they’re sort of trying to process the randomness of how things happen.”

She pays tribute to the first responders and a stranger motorist who stayed with her daughter when she and her husband couldn’t, showing “respect and kindness”.

“They are phenomenal people … I don’t know how they do their jobs,” she says.

Mrs Crozier’s voice wavers with emotion throughout the interview but brightens when asked to describe her daughter, a Wilderness School old scholar.

“She was a strong character who knew who she was, she had such a strong sense of self and what she believed in,” she said, her voice filled with pride.

“She was cheeky, she was seriously loyal to her friends … she was incredibly gentle and kind. She loved the beach.”

A little Poppy Crozier with her big sister Edwina. Picture: supplied by the family

Sisters Poppy and Edwina Crozier. Picture: Supplied

Mrs Crozier applauds the new campaign, inspired by the against-all-odds story of journalist Ben Hyde, saying her family’s “greatest fear” was others experiencing what they have.

She urges people to slow down and think about how their driving might impact others.

“Being late is not a problem … being somewhere a few minutes late is not a problem, it doesn’t matter.,” she said.

“Whenever we are behind the wheel we have such a huge responsibility … it’s not just about you, it’s about other people around you on the road … it is not just about you getting where you want to be, it’s about everyone getting there safely.”

She describes the recent loss of two children from the same Mt Gambier family after a horror crash at Nangwarry as “just absolutely devastating”.

“It’s horrific, and you want to be able to help, but you also know that there’s only so many things that people can do … that everyone’s best efforts and kindness and all of those things, they can’t ever (change what has happened),” she said.

“It’s just heartbreaking to see that someone else is going to have to live a life where they’ve lost a child.”